Trance
by TheCocoQueen
Summary: Trance is a young heroine, and she and a few other young heroes will be coming together to take the first step to joining the Justice League. But, after a turn of events the teens get their own team instead. She is ready for the work, but finds herself facing new challenges that her training hasn't prepared her for. Like, her building attraction towards one of her teammates.
1. Independance Day (Part I)

Coco: Hello, hello, everyone. To everyone new to any of my works, it's nice to meet you. I am TheCocoQueen, but please, feel free to call me Coco. To those already familiar with me and my work, welcome to another story. I know I already have a lot of other stories that need my attention, but I need something new and fresh to work on after some unfortunate events that happened amongst my friends and family in the last couple of months hence this story. I do hope you enjoy, and if it isn't obvious already this is a Kaldur/OC story. Now, I love Kaldur and always thought he needed some love, which is why I'm so happy he was given his lovely partner in Season 3. I nearly squealed when seeing him and Wyynde. They are so cute, but I've always wanted to do a Kaldur/OC story, so here we are.

And forewarning other OCs will be added. Not a lot. Mostly just my OC Trance's family and friends-nothing major.

Now, one more thing if you see the font like this _**"Young Justice" **_Another language is being used. In this chapter, the language is Ukrainian, and in further chapters, if there is more than one foreign language being used, I will be sure to use different font, so to hopefully let all of you understand which language is being used at the time. Thank-you.

* * *

**ODESSA**

**JULY 4****TH**** 2010**

**20:00 EEST**

As the sound of screaming filled the air of the once peaceful streets of Odessa, a figure crouched on one of the rooftops sighed. The figure was a young girl who appeared to be in her mid-teens. She had long dark hair that was placed in a tight braid that fell between her shoulder blades. She was olive skinned with a toned form, which was defined by her sleeveless black bodysuit, which tucked into her black combat boots on her feet. Her eyes were covered by a domino mask. Around her waist was a red belt that carried multiple pouches around it and sword on her right side.

"_**Of course, someone would have to cause a commotion before our departure,"**_ She spoke in perfect Ukrainian as she stood.

Her fingerless gloved-hand gripped the handle to her sword, which was attached to her red utility belt. The belt matched her leather short-sleeved red jacket, which sleeves reached to her elbows.

The one causing the commotion she spoke off was the European Ice Villainess known as Hailstone. However, this villain was far from her usual turf, which was Norway. Said villain was attacking citizens and the young vigilante new she needed to stop Hailstone before someone ended up dead or permanently injured.

_**"I suppose this will kill time before Mother arrives,"**_ She said to herself.

Without further pause, the teen threw herself off the roof of the building she had been perched on. She quickly pulled out a grappling gun and shot it forward to latch onto the building across the street. It snagged and sent her swinging right in the direction of Hailstone, which was perfect because the building momentum would definitely get the villain's attention once she was hit.

"Don't think you can run from me!" Hailstone spoke in English to the feeling citizens. "You pathetic worms! I will—augh!"

Hailstone never finished her threat as the teen vigilante finally came swinging into her. The girl's foot caught the older woman in the gut and sent the woman spiraling towards the ground and off the large ice pillar she had created. She coughed before letting out an almost feral snarl as she looked up to her attacker who had landed on the ice pillar she had created.

"Trance!" She shouted at the teen.

Trance cheekily wiggled her fingers at Hailstone in a wave of greeting that had the ice villain nearly steaming in anger. Hailstone hurried to her feet and without further warning sent a torrent of icy wind and large chunks of ice towards Trance. Trance quickly flipped up into the air to avoid the attack and as she turned midair, she pulled out several shuriken shaped disk bombs to throw at Hailstone. Hailstone tried to block the explosives with a wall of ice, but she didn't have time to form a proper wall, so when the bombs exploded, it destroyed the wall while pushing Hailstone back.

Trance didn't give Hailstone, who was back to picking herself up off the ground, much time to recover as she rushed the ice woman. Trance drew her sword while immediately slashing at Hailstone. Hailstone gasped while dodging backwards. She then grit her teeth as she threw out a punch towards Trance's torso, which connected. Trance held back a wince as she twisted away with the momentum of the hit to whirl around to come at Hailstone from another angle. Hailstone expected as much and had enough time to form and ice shield. As Trance's blade sliced into the shield but not completely threw it, Hailstone smirked.

"I expected more from you, Trance," Hailstone taunted. "What's wrong? Can't take on one opponent without Wraith here to take care of all the hard work?"

Trance knew Hailstone was only trying to anger her and while her words did irk Trance a bit, the teen kept her cool. In fact, she smirked, which confused Hailstone.

"Your words mean nothing to me," Trance replied coolly as she twirled her sword in hand causing it to glimmer in the moonlight_. _"Now, kindly surrender. I have a previous engagement to leave for. I would rather not be late."

If she was the last to arrive, a certain bratty bird would never let her live it down since she's as he says "the queen of punctuality." Not to mention, tardiness was more of a particular redhead's thing.

"You hurt my feelings," Hailstone said with a dramatic pout. "What could be more important than entertaining me?!"

Hailstone let out a shout as she shot another torrent of ice towards Trance. Trance had to retreat backwards while even jumping back to high ground. Hailstone chuckled at her retreat as if this really was just one big game. Trance wasn't amused, however, and let out another sigh.

"I can think of many things more important than you in general," Trance said. "Shall I list them off?"

Her words angered Hailstone who fired more and more shards of ice at Trance. Trance dodged the attacks while noticing a new player arrived to the game—her mother; Wraith—stood on the rooftop behind the unsuspecting Hailstone. Unlike her daughter, Wraith was fair of hair with pale skin to match. Wraith wore a black body suit as well—sleeves included—with gold accents. She too wore a black domino. It was a simple costume, but simple worked. Wraith wasn't so much into flashy heroism like some heroes—something she and her daughter share.

Trance, who finally was able to stop her dancing around, tilted her head at her mother as if silently saying, "Took you long enough." The look got her an amused smirk from the older woman as Hailstone finally noticed Trance's attention was elsewhere. As Hailstone turned to see what had Trance's attention, it was too late because Wraith pounced. Wraith first threw down some flash bombs to blind Hailstone who cried out. As Hailstone tried to recover from the initial attack, Wraith and Trance moved in.

Both moved in synch as Wraith went for Hailstone's head and Trance went to take out her legs. The two attacks hit and Hailstone was literally sent for a loop as she felt as if her brains were being scrambled. She hit the concrete hard while groaning in pain as the mother-daughter duo stood over her. The two watched as Hailstone weakly glared at them.

"I'm…not…done…" She said as she reached towards them shakily.

"Actually, you are," Wraith said as she placed an inhibitor collar around Hailstone.

With her powers no longer at her fingertips, it was like all will to fight left Hailstone as she finally collapsed into unconsciousness. As some curious citizens began to gather once the fight was over, Trance looked to her mother.

**_"Where did you get one of those?"_** She asked as she switched back to Ukrainian.

_**"A officer was kind enough to give it to me,"**_ Wraith replied as she gestured over her shoulder.

Trance glanced over seeing some police officers rushing over. Some looked a little shaken and some even looked a bit injured—that meant they must have been first responders to the attack. Trance guessed she wasn't the first on the scene as she thought.

_**"Hmm,"**_ Trance hummed then lost interest in the current conversation, which brought her to her new topic. **_"So, now that you are here and the villain is down, may we please leave?"_**

Wraith glanced down at Trance who had a cool expression on as always and while her tone betrayed nothing, Wraith knew _**Trance was getting impatient. Wraith chuckled before reaching out to gently muse Trance's dark locks.**_

_**"Of course,"**_ Wraith replied. **_"Best not to be late, hmm?"_**

* * *

**WASHINGTON D.C.**

**JULY 4****TH**** 13:50 EDT**

Trance rolled her shoulders—making them pop—as she and her mother stood across from the Hall of Justice. Unlike, in the Ukraine it was barely after noon in the United states, so the sun shined brightly above them.

"It would seem as if we are the first ones here." Wraith commented.

Trance hummed in reply as she crossed her arms across her chest. She was sure the others would be here shortly. She knew Robin and Kid Flash would be eager to get here. Today was a special day after all. Speaking of one of the little devils, Trance turned her head seeing Batman and Robin arriving. And the latter was sporting his usual mischievous grin. As the two teens exchanged a greeting amongst themselves, the two adults inclined their heads towards each other.

"Ah, the Great Detective of Gotham," Wraith greeted the Dark Knight with an almost sardonic tone. "It's been some time, hasn't it?"

"Wraith," Batman replied coolly.

Wraith lightly snorted at Batman's short greeting as Trance resisted the urge to roll her eyes. It's been four years since Wraith and Batman came to their _agreement_ and put the past behind them, but the tension between the two was as apparent as ever. She just wished they'd get over it. As if sensing her exasperation, Robin's grin grew. When the older teen glanced to him, he shrugged in a "What can we do about it?" manner. Trance gave her own shrug in response as if replying "Nothing _to do_ about it.", which Robin could agree with.

"So, Trance, how are things going in Odessa?" Robin asked.

"It was rather quiet throughout the day, but then Hailstone attacked after nightfall." Trance said.

"Why was Hailstone in the Ukraine?" Robin pondered.

Trance shrugged once more because his guess was as good as hers. She didn't really stay to ask why Hailstone wasn't in Norway. Odessa was a nice spot for tourist, but many of the tourist weren't there to cause chaos and harm.

"Well, we fought Freeze in Gotham not long before we left for here," Robin said. "He was turning citizens into popsicles."

Trance's brow quirked. Two ice villains roughly causing trouble at the same time—ya know, if you don't count time zone differences—seemed a bit odd. Robin nodded along with her look because he agreed. It was odd.

"Still having one-sided conversations with her, bird boy?" A new voice cut in.

The group turned seeing Green Arrow and Speedy arriving on the scene. The prior gave a warm welcoming to his fellow heroes—a stark contrast to how Batman and Wraith had greeted each other earlier. The latter stopped in front of the younger teens as Trance did roll her eyes under her mask this time. She and Speedy have only had brief interactions, and none of those times were leading to a close friendship anytime soon. She didn't quite like Speedy's hothead personality and Speedy didn't like how she—well, she didn't really go out of her way to talk to him.

"Hey, hey, she replies." Robin defended her with a chuckle. "You just have to know how to translate."

Robin was the only one out of the three protégés she knows that can read her body language—her silent replies. And she can do the same with him in return. Their ability to silently communicate definitely helped in the stealth part of their work. Kid Flash kind of understood some of the time, but Trance actually used her words more with the speedster. She didn't mind speaking to Kid though. He had a friendly open personality—unlike his fellow redhead.

"Right," Speedy snorted then addressed Trance directly. "Trance."

Deciding to play nice since today was a special day, Trance turned her eyes up to Speedy.

"Speedy," She replied in greeting.

She could have sworn she heard Green Arrow mumbling something like "progress" to her mother behind them, but she ignored it—even when her mother chuckled.

"Anyway, I heard you two mention Hailstone and Freeze," Speedy said getting back to the conversation they had been having. "Weird thing is, GA and I had to deal with Icicle Jr. before coming here. And on our way, GA heard Flash and KF fight Cold in Central. Even Aquaman and Aqualad were battling Killer Frost from last I heard."

That definitely was weird, and it was too much to be a coincidence. Five ice villains attacking on the same day? Something had to be up. It was something Trance knew Batman of all people would want to discuss soon. Soon the next to arrive were the Atlantean heroes—Aquaman and Aqualad. While Trance has met Aquaman before, she has yet to meet his protégé. As Aquaman greeted the other heroes, Trance studied his protégé.

Aqualad seemed to be about her and Kid Flash's age—he could even be closer to Speedy's age. He had dark skin and short blonde hair. His eyes were a bright, clear green and they were soft, kind—definitely not what she expected. She heard he had Atlantean Military training; she didn't expect his gaze to be soft. Though his expression was rather neutral. He would be a hard one to read.

Trance came out of her musing as her mother came to step behind her. Wraith placed her hands on Trance's shoulders with an encouraging smile on her face as she was turned to fully face the Atlanteans. Trance kept her arms crossed over her chest as Aquaman gave her a kind smile.

"Trance, I believe you haven't met Aqualad yet," Aquaman said as he placed his hand on said boy's shoulders. "Aqualad this is Wraith's protégé—Trance."

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Aqualad said politely. "Your mother has spoken highly of you."

Trance tilted her head while hearing sincerity in the teen's tone. She decided this one was nice enough. With that decision made, she relaxed her stance and held out her hand to Aqualad. Said protégé smiled slightly as he reached out to grip her hand for a single shake.

"I have heard high praise of you as well." Trance replied. "I look forward to working with you."

Aqualad nodded in agreement. Robin then nudged Aqualad getting the Atlantean's attention as the dark-haired boy grinned.

"Told you she wasn't as bad as Speedy made her seem." Robin not so quietly _whispered_.

Speedy shot the shorter boy a glare, which didn't faze the Boy Wonder in the slightest. Trance looked at Speedy with a quirked brow.

"I suppose I should just be flattered you speak of me," Trance commented.

Speedy just scoffed as he crossed his arms over his chest. Before the conversation could move forward anymore, there was swoosh of air from behind them.

"Aww, man!" Kid Flash complained as the group turned around. "I knew we'd be the last ones here."

Flash just looked amused by Kid Flash's annoyance as Kid Flash crossed his arms over his shoulders. Robin cackled in his own amusement.

"I believe everyone knew you would be the last ones here, Kid," Trance lightly teased.

Her voice had Kid Flash's head snapping in her direction, and he grinned when taking in the sight of her. And before anyone could blink, the speedster was right at her side.

"Hey, beautiful, long time no see." Kid Flash said flirtatiously as he put his arm around her shoulders. "Did you miss me? Because I sure missed you."

Instead of verbally replying, Trance gently, but firmly pushed Kid Flash back by putting her hand in his face. Robin laughed even more as Kid Flash moved Trance's hand to give her a pout. She quirked her brow silently him in return. Soon the group was on the move as they headed towards the front doors of the Hall. As they moved forward, the tourists around came up to take photos and chat excitedly.

"Is that Batman?" A man whispered.

"It's the Ukraine heroes—Wraith and Trance!" A teen girl whispered to the boy beside her. "I wonder why they're here!"

"I see Flash and Flash Jr." A woman exclaimed.

Kid Flash held back a sigh as his actual hero name was once again forgotten. Though he didn't know how.

"His name is Speedy, duh." The woman's companion corrected.

"No, Speedy is Green Arrow's sidekick." A man cut in.

"Well, that makes no sense." The first man said.

Both redheads looked annoyed at this point, but it wasn't as if they could do anything about it.

"Ready to see the inner sanctum?" Green Arrow asked Speedy to distract him from the whispering citizens.

"Born that way." Speedy said with a grin.

"I am glad we are all here." Aqualad said as he smiled at his fellow protégés once more.

Robin and Kid Flash grinned in return as Trance walked alongside them—quiet as usual.

"Have all five sidekicks ever been in the same place at the same time?" Kid Flash asked.

"Don't call us sidekicks!" Speedy growled. "Not after today."

Kid Flash looked a little put out by Speedy's snappy retort though he hid it well.

"Sorry," He apologized as they neared the doors. "First time at the Hall. I'm a little overwhelmed."

"You're overwhelmed, Freeze was underwhelmed," Robin gripped as the doors opened for them. "Why isn't anyone just whelmed?"

"I believe the definition of whelmed is to be submerged underwater or buried." Trance replied. "It can also mean to flow—in other words, it technically does not work in the context you are suggesting."

Robin gave Trance a look as his own reply, which clearly told her one thing "that's not the point I'm trying to make." Trance tilted her head then caught sight of the large statues they were walking towards. And she wasn't the only one. The boys also took in the sight of the large stone statues of the original Justice League members that stood before them—like guardian deities of the Hall. The sight of them even had Speedy's eyes widening ever so slightly.

"Oh, I guess that's why." Robin said.

The teens were then guided to a large metal door under the statues that had "authorized personal only" stamped across the front. As they stopped in front of the doors, they opened to reveal Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado.

"Trance, Robin, Speedy, Aqualad, Kid Flash, welcome." Manhunter greeted them.

As the Leaguer started to lead them through the doors, Robin and Kid Flash exchanged a fist bump. Once inside, they were given a small tour of the place and told the areas they now had complete access to. The tour ended in a large room that had a large computer and round table—where meetings most likely took place. Bookshelves also framed the walls, which caught Trance's interest.

"Make yourselves at home," Flash said once the adults stopped at the large computer in the room.

Robin and Kid Flash didn't have to be told twice as they both plopped down in two of the three chairs farthest away from the large conference table that also laid within the room.

"Would you like this seat?" Aqualad asked Trance as he gestured to the remaining seat of the small grouping of chairs.

Trance silently shook her head as she perched herself on the arm of Robin's chair. This would work just fine for her. Aqualad looked a tad amused by her silent decline to his offer before he took the last seat. Speedy remained standing and watched the adults closely.

"Quick debrief on the coincidence of five ice villains attacking on the same day." Batman said then looked to the teens. "We shouldn't be long."

Trance's brow quirked as she wondered why they wouldn't be able to participate in this debrief. They were there to fight the villains as well. In fact, Trance engaged Hailstone first. She glanced at her mother for some kind of answer. The two locked gazes and Wraith very subtly shook her head. It was a conversation for another time then. Trance dipped her head in acknowledgement. However, it didn't seem as if Speedy would be silent.

"That's it?" He questioned getting all of the heroes to turn. "You promised us a real look inside. Not a glorified backstage pass."

The Leaguers exchanged a glance before Aquaman seemed to volunteer himself to try and calm Speedy.

"It's the first step." Aquaman said. "You've been granted access few others get."

Speedy frowned then glanced towards the civilians who had their faces pressed against the large window that allowed them a clear view into the room they were in.

"Oh really?" Speedy inquired as he gestured to civilians. "Who cares what side of the glass we're on?"

Trance knew he had a point. It seemed a bit odd that tourists would have this much viewing privileges into the League's Headquarters. What was the point of keeping them out from these rooms, if they could see into them anyway?

"Roy, you just need to be patient." Green Arrow tried to calm his protégé.

"What I need is respect." Speedy retorted.

He then turned towards the others who were watching the scene with rapt attention.

"They're treating us like kids." Speedy said. "Worse; like _sidekicks_. We deserve better than this."

Trance just tilted her head silently at the archer as the others exchanged glances amongst themselves.

"You're kidding, right?" Speedy asked—shocked by their silence. "You're playing their game? Why?! Today was supposed to be _the_ day! Step one into becoming full-fledged members of the League."

Once more Trance remained quiet as she waited to see how things would end. She knew before even coming here not to expect too much. It was Kid Flash who finally spoke as Robin and Aqualad retained their silence as well.

"Well, sure," Kid agreed. "But I thought step one was a tour of the HQ."

"Except the Hall isn't the League's real HQ!" Speedy said. "I bet they never told you it's just a false front for tourists and a pitstop for catching zeta beam teleporter tubes to the real thing—an orbiting satellite called the Watchtower."

This little piece of information had Trance's brow raising. Though she was surprised, it made sense. Why the League let their "HQ" be a tourist stop of all places and why they let tourists see into this room—a room masquerading almost like a conference room. They didn't have to worry about anyone seeing or hearing anything they shouldn't because the Hall of Justice was just a front.

It was smart really, and while Trance wasn't too upset with this revelation, her fellow protégés were a different story. Apparently, none of them weren't supposed to know—which she supposed warmed her heart a bit. At least she wasn't the only one left out. And based on Batman's glare towards Green Arrow, Speedy wasn't supposed to know either.

"I know," Green Arrow said. "But I thought we could make an exception."

Batman's silent narrowing of his eyes was louder than any verbal reply that could be given.

"Or not." Green Arrow said as he averted his gaze.

Aquaman then stepped in to try once more to calm the angered teen as Speedy continued to glare heatedly.

"You are not helping your cause here, son." Aquaman said. "Stand down. Or—!"

"Or what?!" Speedy interrupted. "You'll send me to my room? And I'm not your son! I'm not even his."

He looked to Green Arrow as he said this and the older Archer's eyes widened behind his mask as an expression of hurt fell across his face.

"I thought I was his partner." Speedy said then threw down his hat. "But not anymore."

The boys watched in shock as the redhead started to march pass them. Honestly, Trance wasn't too shocked. She knew Speedy's temper and complete distain for being "looked down on" could lead to something like this.

"Guess they were right about you four," Speedy said as the boys stood. "You're not ready."

Trance, who was on her feet now, resisted a snarky remark to Speedy's taunt as the archer showed himself out. She glanced towards her mother as the boys tried to take in what just happened. Wraith met Trance's glance. The two moved closer until they were side-by-side.

"_**Are you upset?"**_ Wraith asked under her breath while returning to Ukrainian.

"_**Is there a reason to be?"**_ Trance answered with her own question. _**"It is only logical to keep such a detail a secret. Though I am a bit surprised they didn't know."**_

She glanced towards the other protégés as the teens finally turned to look at their own mentors.

"_**While today is an important milestone, the League thinks it is too soon for you protégés to know everything,"**_ Wraith explained. _**"And too young for certain burdens."**_

Trance tilted her head at that one but before she could ask her mother to elaborate, the large computer in the room whirled to life. Everyone turned as the largest of the screens came on to reveal Superman.

"Superman to Justice League," Superman called in. "There's been an explosion at Project Cadmus. It's on fire."

"I've had my suspicions about Cadmus," Batman said as the Leaguers gathered around the computer. "This may present the perfect opportunity—!"

He was cut off as Zatara appeared on a smaller window of the large super computer with his face set in a grave expression.

"Zatara to Justice League, Wotan is using the Amulet of Aten to blot out the sun." Zatara reported. "Requesting full League response."

"Superman?" Batman questioned.

"It's a small fire." Superman said. "Local authorities have it under control."

Trance supposed that meant, they were going to fight Wotan. She glanced over her weaponry quickly. She needed to be prepared for this fight. Wotan was no joke from what she's heard.

"Then Cadmus can wait." Batman said as he pressed a button on the keyboard. "All Leaguers rendezvous at Zatara's coordinates—Batman out."

Trance's fellow protégés hurriedly went to their mentors' sides while ready to fight alongside them as they always do. However, Batman's next words stopped them in their tracks.

"Stay put." He said as the rest of the present Leaguers prepared to leave.

Even Trance was a bit confused by that order since Zatara did request a full League response. Didn't that include them? She knew this was their first day here, but that didn't suddenly erase their years of experience fighting villains before being brought together like this.

"What?!" Robin asked. "Why?"

Aquaman and Flash stopped to flank Batman as the teens waited for an explanation.

"This is a League mission." Aquaman informed them.

"You're not trained," Flash tried to explain before being cut off by Kid Flash.

"Since when?!" Kid demanded.

Flash paused a moment to rethink his words. Obviously, the heroes didn't want any more of them to walk out like Speedy had.

"I mean, you're not trained to work as part of this team." Flash continued.

"There will be other missions," Aquaman assured them. "When we're ready."

"For now, stay put." Batman said firmly.

Trance looked to Wraith wondering if her mother was really going along with this. Wraith gave Trance a look and placed a hand on her shoulder.

_**"You will remain here with them."**_ Wraith said. _**"It is still too soon for you to take these kinds of missions, little one."**_

Since coming here, Trance finally felt a bit of anger bubble up in her chest. It wasn't much, but enough to have her pull her shoulder out of her mother's grip.

_**"Now, I'm upset."**_ Trance said as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Wraith sighed though went to leave with the rest of the present Leaguers. And the protégés said no more as they watched the heroes leave. It was silent after their departure as Trance stared at the wall with a frown on her face.

"Tch, when we're ready." Kid scoffed breaking the silence. "How are we ever supposed to be ready when they…when they treat us like sidekicks?!"

Trance didn't react to the speedster's angered question as she wondered herself if her mother thought so little of her and of her skills. She knew she shouldn't let it bother her as much as it is, but her pride took a bit of a hit when her mother decided she wasn't ready to take the next step.

"My mentor—my king—I thought he trusted me." Aqualad said.

"Trust? They don't even trust us with the basics." Kid Flash retorted. "They've got a secret HQ in space!"

"What else aren't they telling us?" Aqualad wondered.

"I'm not concerned with the fact they kept this Watchtower of theirs a secret. Nor, do I really care about their little secrets." Trance replied.

Her mother usually didn't keep much from her. Trance was exposed to a lot at a young age. While she didn't become a vigilante until after Robin, she didn't exactly have a normal childhood. So, her mother didn't really "shield" her or see a reason to keep information from her. The secret HQ being a different story since it wasn't just her mother's secret. So, it wasn't her mother's place to decide who did and who didn't know. And it was logical for the Justice League to keep their secret HQ a _secret_.

"However, I am concerned with the fact that they don't trust us to be at their sides in a fight," Trance continued. "Haven't we earned that at least?"

"I've got a better question," Robin cut in. "Why didn't we leave with Speedy?"

His question had the room going silent again as the protégés fell into their own thoughts. Trance sighed for the umpteenth time today as she placed her hands on her hips.

"What is Project Cadmus?" Aqualad asked breaking the silence.

"I don't know." Robin replied before he grinned. "But I can find out."

The Boy Wonder went over to the computer to hook the extendable cord in his glove into the computer. He wasted no time in typing away as the others gathered around.

**"Access Denied."** The computer informed them.

"Wanna bet?" Robin challenged with a grin.

He continued typing with Kid and Aqualad watching with wide eyes as HE started to bypass security as if it was nothing. Trance hummed; impressed with Robin's work. She had slight hacking skills, but not enough to do something like this.

"Whoa, how are you doing that?" Kid Flash asked.

"Same system as the Batcave," Robin answered.

And with a few more short clicks later, Robin granted them access into the computer. A video file appeared on the screen with a small caption in the top left corner.

"Okay, Project Cadmus...genetics lab here in DC." Robin said. "That's all there is, but if Batman is suspicious, maybe we should investigate."

Trance quite liked that idea. If the adults wanted to go off and run their own mission, the teens could do just the same. Besides, covert missions were something Trance was very good at.

"Solve their case before they do," Aqualad said with a small smile on his face. "It would be poetic justice."

"Hey, they're all about justice." Robin pointed out.

Aqualad almost seemed won over, but he let out a sigh with a look of doubt clouding his gaze.

"But they said to stay put." Aqualad said looking concerned.

"For the blotting out the sun mission, not this." Robin reminded him.

Kid Flash's eyes widened as he turned Robin around, so the two friends were facing each other.

"Wait, are you going to Cadmus?" Kid Flash asked. "Because if you're going, I'm going."

The two looked expectantly at Kaldur and Trance as grins split across their faces.

"Just like that? We're a team on a mission?" Aqualad questioned.

"We didn't come for a playdate." Robin said firmly.

Aqualad turned to Trance who had remained silent as the boys' made up their minds.

"And you?" Aqualad asked as he glanced down at Trance.

Kid Flash and Robin looked at Trance pleadingly, and the girl's lips twitched up slightly.

"How could I say no to such adorable faces?" She replied with her own question.


	2. Independance Day (Part II)

Coco: Here's chapter 2 for your enjoyment, and just a warning, don't expect updates like this to happen often. I just had this portion done since I wrote all of episode one at once and just separated them into two parts since they were so long. I just worked on editing this half longer since it was proving tricky.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter as much as I did working on it :D

* * *

It didn't take long before the teens arrived at Project Cadmus, and from what they could see the fire had yet to be contained. There were also two trapped scientists in the upper story. The firemen were trying to keep them calm as they worked on getting to them and to put out the fire. However, an explosion sent the two scientists hurtling from the window.

"I've got them!" Kid Flash said as he zoomed away.

Kid Flash rushed to their aid in a blink of an eye and managed to run up the side of the building to the roof before gravity kicked in. And soon their people in need of rescue count went up to three. Trance shook her head as Robin chuckled.

"Now who has him?" Trance asked no in particular.

"Isn't he just so smooth?" Was Robin's unhelpful reply.

Neither Aqualad nor Trance seemed to think so as Kid Flash continued to dangle from the window like a wall decoration.

"Must he always run ahead?" Aqualad inquired. "We need a plan. We need…"

The young Atlantean trailed off when realizing he was talking to himself and his two other companions were gone.

"Robin…Trance?" He murmured as he wondered where they ran off to.

He heard Robin's familiar cackle and turned just in time to see him and Trance jumping on top of the firetruck. The two fired their grappling gun simultaneously to swing themselves over to the window where Kid Flash was. They landed with well-practiced ease onto the windowsill before pulling Kid Flash up and inside the building.

Robin jumped after the speedster, but Trance turned her eyes up to the trapped scientists on the roof. Before she could come up with the best plan of action to help them, Aqualad, who rushed over and borrowed the firemen's water, seemed to have it covered. He formed a water platform out of the water he gathered and had it rise up to where the scientist waited.

"Climb abroad, now." He said while leaving no room for argument.

The scientist shakily did as they were told, and as Trance watched—ready to intervene if anything went wrong—Aqualad lowered them down to the ground safely as he set himself in the window beside Trance. Wordlessly she nodded before jumping in through the window. Aqualad was right behind her, and he slightly frowned at his fellow protégés

"Appreciate the help." Aqualad said.

"Hey, you handled it." Robin, who was already hacking away on a computer, pointed out. "Poetic justice, remember?"

Kid Flash didn't even bother commenting as he shifted through some files on the table across the room. Trance looked up at taller teen as Aqualad sighed.

"I apologize but it seemed as if you had everything covered." Trance said. "Inference on my part seemed unnecessary."

Aqualad said nothing in return, and the female vigilante didn't wait to see if he would reply as she joined Robin by the computer he was hacking.

"Anything?" Trance asked as Aqualad went to explore further into the building.

"Nothing so far." He replied. "But we haven't checked any of the other rooms yet."

Trance nodded before heading to look into the other rooms. However, she nearly walked right into Aqualad as she went into the hallway.

"Aqualad?" She questioned.

She then followed his line of sight with her eyes widening slightly when she caught a brief glimpse of some kind of creature disappearing behind the elevator doors—which should have been shut down.

"You saw that too, yes?" Aqualad asked her.

Trance silently nodded her head. This place was certainly turning interesting.

"Elevators should be locked down." Kid Flash, who came to their sides, pointed out.

Robin quickly joined them while nearly running into Kid Flash while doing so. He then went towards the elevator while pulling up the schematics for it, which he downloaded when hacking into their system earlier.

"This is wrong." He said before narrowing his eyes at the image displayed in front of him. "Thought so. This is a high-speed express elevator. It doesn't belong in a two-story building."

"Neither does what Trance and I saw." Aqualad said.

Aqualad then forced the elevator doors open to look down into the dark elevator shaft that led deep underground. Robin and Trance ducked under his arms to take a look themselves as Kid peeked over Aqualad's shoulder.

"And that's why they need an express elevator." Robin said.

"Batman was right to have an interest in this place." Trance added.

The two then deployed their grappling guns before plunging down into the darkness. After giving them a few seconds, Aqualad and Kid Flash followed. The teens fell several floors down before coming to a halt at sublevel twenty-six.

"Looks like it's the end of our ropes." Robin said.

He swung over to the small ledge to begin his hacking as Trance jumped over on the opposite side of the closed door. Aqualad was next and he easily cleared the jump before he helped Kid Flash over.

"Bypassing security…there, go." Robin gave the okay.

Aqualad forced the doors open for them, so the teens could enter sublevel twenty-six. Trance looked around seeing nothing too out of the ordinary. Nothing like what was in the elevator earlier.

"Welcome to Project Cadmus." Robin said.

Before Robin even really finished speaking Kid Flash took off running down the hall.

"Kid, wait!" Aqualad whispered after him.

Kid Flash did stop, but it wasn't because of Aqualad calling out to him. No, he was stopped by the mammoth sized creatures that came stomping through the next hall. The others watched with wide eyes as Kid slipped and skidded across the ground when he had tried to make an abrupt stop. His little mishap put him right in the large creature's path and just as one was about walk all over him—literally—Kid Flash managed to roll out of the way.

The others hurried over and stopped to watch the creatures go by as Kid rejoined them at their sides. As they watched the giants, Trance's eyes snapped to a much smaller creature riding on one of the bigger one's shoulder. It stared back at her and for a moment its eyes glowed an eerie red color. It didn't set well with her, but besides that the creatures paid them no mind.

"No…nothing odd going on around here." Aqualad said.

The group waited for the creatures to pass completely before they started moving on.

"I don't feel as if we have much more time," Trance said. "There was a smaller creature on one of the large ones that took notice of us."

"Yeah, I noticed it too." Robin said. "Did you see its eyes and horns glow?"

Trance nodded her head and Robin frowned. He wasn't sure what the glowing meant, and the creatures hadn't attacked. But maybe they didn't need to. At least not yet.

"Are you thinking it might have sent out a signal or something?" Kid Flash asked as the teens turned down a different hall.

"Possibly," Trance replied. "We don't know what those creatures are capable of or who controls them. For all we know it sent out a message to one of its own or even to the person or persons running Cadmus."

"Meaning we best hurry to find any information we need." Aqualad concluded.

As Trance nodded in agreement, Robin quickly worked on hacking the security that kept the door locked to them. It didn't take long before Robin managed to get the door open, and when the group stepped inside, their eyes widened once more.

"Okay, I'm officially whelmed." Robin said.

In the room were large glowing tubes that had more odd creatures within them. These creatures seemed to give off electricity, and either didn't notice or care the teens were there as they didn't react to the group entering the room even further.

"This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world." Kid said. "The real Cadmus isn't on the grid. It generates its own power with these…_things_. It must be what they're bred for."

He gestured to the creatures who remained immobile inside their own personal bulbs.

"Even the name is a clue." Aqualad pointed out. "The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sewing dragon's teeth into the earth."

"This new Cadmus creates new life too." Robin said before helping himself to the computer in the room. "Let's find out why."

As he went to hacking into the system, Trance glanced around. It seemed as if they were still in the clear, but it was uncertain how long that would last.

"They call them Genomorphs." Robin said as he pulled up the information. "Whoa, look at the stats on these things. Super strength, telepathy, razor claws—these are living weapons."

"They're engineering an army." Kid Flash said. "But for who?"

Just then Trance's eyes snapped over to the door they came from as she saw incoming opponents heading their way. The boys didn't seem to notice since Robin was working on a file that rather interested him.

"Hate to interrupt, but we have company." Trance cut in as Robin was trying to hack a triple encrypted file.

The three boys whirled around—or turned their heads in Robin's case—as a man with a golden helmet and a few Genomorphs rushed in.

"Don't move!" The man shouted before seeming confused as he took in their appearance. "Wait…Robin, Aqualad, Trance, Kid Flash?"

"At least he got your name right," Robin teased their speedster companion who frowned in return.

He then returned to hacking after Trance stepped in front of him with her sword already have drawn. If things went south, Robin didn't need to worry about getting hit from behind. She would watch his back until he was ready to move.

"I know you," Aqualad said. "Guardian…a hero."

"I do my best." Guardian said modestly.

Trance has never heard of this Guardian before and since he seemed like friends with the living weapons, she wasn't exactly ready to lower her guard.

"Then what are you doing here?" Kid Flash demanded.

"I'm chief of security." Guardian explained. "And you're trespassing. But we can call the Justice League. Figure this out."

Instead of being concerned at the thought of her mother being called, Trance's eyebrow just rose. Since when was a hero on the payroll of a secret, underground—not to mention shady—organization? Behind her, Robin nudged her back with his elbow. Seemed as if he finished what he needed to do, which was good because she could already tell things were going to get rough.

"You think the League is going to approve of you breeding weapons?!" Kid Flash snapped.

"Weapons?!" Guardian asked looking genuinely confused before he groaned.

He held his head and Trance noticed the little guy on his shoulder seemed to be the cause. If the little creature's glowing horns were anything to go by. Guardian held his head a few seconds longer as he seemed to be struggling with forming coherent sentences. His eyes then snapped open with the confusion from before all but gone.

"Take them down, hard!" He ordered the Genomorphs. "No mercy!"

The Genomorphs rushed to attack as Trance fully unsheathed her sword. Looks as if trying to get out of here without a fight was impossible now. However, right before the creatures could strike, Robin whirled around to the front of the group while throwing down a smoke bomb. He was quick to get out of the way and Trance was about to follow right behind since a fight would only slow them down, but one of the Genomorphs rammed into her side.

She skidded to the side though kept her footing as she quickly raised her sword to block the creature's long claws. She kicked it out to send it backwards as Kid Flash dealt with his own mess of genomorphs. Aqualad had to deal with Guardian as the older male knocked him to the side. Aqualad quickly recovered as he got to his feet to meet Guardian's next attack. Trance frowned as she flipped over two charging genomorphs. They needed to hurry up and break away, so to get back to Robin. She didn't want the younger teen getting into trouble on his own. Besides, coming here and starting a fight wasn't part of the plan.

Trance threw out a few flash bombs as she was still midair and blinded the genomorphs. As they tried to regain their senses, she shoved Kid Flash forward, and he got the hint quickly. He hurried through the clearing smoke as Aqualad managed to get the upper hand on Guardian by shocking him with his Atlantean sorcery. The older hero hit the ground hard as Trance, who sheathed her weapon, and Kid Flash broke through the smoke to rejoin Aqualad. The three teens didn't waste time in hurrying after Robin with the Genomorphs right on their tail.

The alarms were going off at this point and as they turned the corner, they saw Robin hurrying to hack an elevator door open for them. Kid Flash hurried to the Boy Wonder's side as Trance and Aqualad glanced down the corridor they just left to see the Genomorphs closing in. Not wanting another confrontation just yet, the two teens hurried after their other companions. They reached the other two boys as Robin was opening the elevator for them. The two ducked in with the doors closing just in time as the genomorphs went to pounce. Once the doors were shut, the teens allowed themselves a moment to breath. However, Aqualad soon noticed that they didn't seem to be heading in the right direction.

"We're heading down?" He asked.

"Dude, out is up!" Kid Flash said as if Robin had forgotten.

Robin frowned at the two as his right brow quirked—an expression that said they seemed to be the ones in the wrong.

"Excuse me, Project Kr?" He reminded the group. "It's down! On sublevel 52."

Kid Flash looked at the younger protégé as if Robin had a screw loose while Aqualad looked concerned. Trance didn't seem to mind Robin's decision for going down as she calmly stood beside the Boy Wonder.

"This is out of control," Aqualad said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "…Perhaps…perhaps, we could contact the League."

The boys didn't seem to sure; probably worried about what their mentors would say. Though Kid Flash knew things were as Aqualad pointed out getting out of control.

"Even if we do contact them, what would be do after that?" Trance asked. "Cadmus knows they've been breached, and if we leave before the League can arrive and without figuring out what this Project Kr is, they could get rid of it or move it somewhere else before anything can be done about it. And what is it even more dangerous than these genomorphs? I am not saying this to keep you from contacting them. Do so if you wish, but can we really afford to retreat now?"

Her words brought pause as the boys thought it over. Robin wanted to push forward anyway. Project Kr had to be important. Otherwise the file on it wouldn't have been triple encrypted. However, before a decision could be made, the elevator dinged signaling that they made it to their destination. After surveying to see there were no enemies, Robin rushed out of the elevator with Trance right behind him. Aqualad and Kid Flash exchanged a look before the latter shrugged.

"We are already here." He said before following after Robin and Trance.

Aqualad sighed while starting to realize that he might have made the wrong decision to join his fellow protégés on this mission. He did go after them, however, and soon caught up as they came to a fork in the fleshy corridor.

"Which way?" Aqualad asked with exasperation slightly coloring his tone.

"Yeah, bizarre looking hallway one or bizarre looking hallway two?" Robin questioned.

"We could split up." Trance suggested. "Into teams of two."

The look the boys gave her clearly shut down her suggestion. She sighed, and mumbled something under her breath in Ukrainian that the boys wouldn't have understood even if they had caught it.

"Hold!" A voice suddenly called from the hall on the left.

The teens whirled around to see another genomorph looking creature, and Trance could have sworn in was the same one from the elevator earlier. Its horns glowed red as it lifted objects to throw at the protégés. They ducked down before Robin sent his own explosive at the genomorph. However, the genomorph used its telekinetic abilities to stop the explosive disk. He lifted more canisters to throw and the teens took that as their cue to make a run for it down the opposite hall.

Kid Flash ran out ahead with the others not far behind. As they ran Trance heard growling behind them, so she glanced over her shoulder to see Guardian and his squad of genomorphs had caught up. She didn't stare at them for long as she looked back forward as Kid Flash turned down another hall. As she and the boys followed, she saw Kid Flash had accidentally knocked over a female scientist and was currently trying to keep a door from closing.

"Hurry!" He called to his friends before ducking inside the room.

Robin jumped through the door first, and Aqualad paused to let Trance go in before him. Once he crossed over after her, he kicked the wedge holding the door open out of the way. The door closed just in time as Guardian was closing in. Robin quickly hacked into the system while locking the door tight.

"I disabled the door," Robin said. "We're safe."

"We're trapped," Aqualad corrected.

Trance just silently crossed her arms over her chest. This covert mission went south fairly quickly. She was certain her mother wouldn't let her ever live this down. And if her father ever found out…well, she doesn't want to think about it.

"Uh, guys," Kid Flash called getting their attention. "You'll wanna see this."

He pushed a button on one of the control panels in the room. The button activated a light and what it illuminated had all of their eyes widening. In front of them—in a pod—was a boy who looked to be their ages. But was scary was how much he resembled a certain blue boy scout.

"Whoa," Robin said.

Trance moved to get a closer look and noticed that above the boy were three of those tiny genomorphs.

"Big K, little r," Kid said as he came up behind Trance. "The atomic symbol for krypton…clone?"

He turned to Robin as he asked this as Trance kept her eyes on the boy and the genomorphs.

"Robin, hack," Aqualad urged.

"Oh, right," Robin said then quickly got to work.

As he typed, Trance finally moved away from the pod to join Robin and Aqualad by the computers. It took Robin a second, but he managed to bypass the security like he had done at the Hall of Justice.

"Weapon Designation: Superboy," Robin read off. "A clone force grown in _sixteen weeks!_—from DNA acquired from Superman."

"Acquired?" Trance lightly scoffed with her lips twitching up. "Cute."

"Yes, I believe the phrase 'stolen from Superman' would be more appropriate," Aqualad agreed.

"No way the big guy knows about this," Kid Flash added.

If Superman did know about this, Cadmus would have already been shut down a long time ago.

"Solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation 24/7." Robin continued to read.

"And these creatures?" Aqualad asked pointing to the tiny genomorphs above Superboy.

"Genomorph gnomes." Robin replied. "Telepathic. Force-feeding him an education."

Trance didn't like the sound of that at all. There's no telling just what Cadmus was teaching the clone.

"And we can guess what else," Kid Flash said. "They're making a slave out of…well, Superman's son."

"Now we contact the League," Aqualad said firmly.

Trance wasn't going to argue with that, but when she tapped the comm in her ear, all she received was static. And based on the boys' expressions that's all they had as well.

"No signal." Robin confirmed.

"We're in to deep," Kid said. "Literally."

So, they were stuck in a room with a living weapon with no signal and there were more of those living weapons outside just trying to get in. They certainly were in a pickle.

"Fighting our way out seems like the only choice we have." Trance said. "But before that, what do we do about him? Leaving him behind seems a bit inhumane, doesn't it?"

She gestured to the sleeping Superboy, which brought the boys back to their new discovery.

"She's right." Kid Flash said. "This is wrong."

Aqualad couldn't argue with that. Not only was it wrong to leave Superboy in such a way, as Trance pointed out earlier if they ran before help could arrive Cadmus could either destroy their work or run off with it. Neither scenarios were ideal.

"Set him free," Aqualad said to Robin. "Do it."

Robin did as he was asked with Trance standing with her hand on her sword. There was no telling what the clone would do once woken. Once the pod was open, Superboy's hand moved and it clenched into a fist. His eyes snapped open a second later and before any of them could react, Superboy attacked Aqualad. He tackled the Atlantean to the ground and started punching Aqualad across the face. Kid Flash and Robin rushed over immediately. Kid Flash grabbed Superboy's arm while Robin wrapped his arm around the clone's neck.

"Hang on, Supey!" Kid Flash shouted.

"We're on your side!" Robin added.

It didn't seem as if Superboy wanted to listen as he easily broke free of Kid's grip. He punched the speedster in the face and sent Kid Flash flying through a glass tube. Trance checked on the speedster, who was alive but unconscious, quickly as Robin gassed Superboy. The clone backed off and as he was distracted, Robin tried to taser him. Superboy was highly unaffected and grabbed the taser cables to jerk Robin forward.

However, before Robin could be pulled into Superboy's grip, Trance cut the cords to disconnect the two. She then whirled around to plant her foot in Superboy's face. While it didn't really faze Superboy, it gave Robin time to gain his bearings and Trance time to plant a small explosive on the boy who had been distracted by her attack. The explosive went off and the clone shouted in anger as he stumbled backwards.

"Not sure if that was such a good idea, Trance." Robin said. "He just looks pissed."

"And do you think tasing him made him dislike you any less?" Trance retorted.

"Touché." Robin said.

The two then had to spring apart when Superboy charged them. Robin hadn't been fast enough, however, as Superboy grabbed his cape. He swung Robin around before throwing the Boy Wonder into the wall with a sickening thud. Robin groaned as he hit the ground before joining Kid Flash in the land of unconsciousness. Trance and Aqualad frowned as the latter managed to get off the ground.

"You're certainly proving to be troublesome." Trance said. "Why not just be a good boy and play nice?"

Her reply was an almost feral snarl from Superboy who obviously wasn't over the fact she had placed an explosive on her. He went to jump her, but was stopped when Aqualad jumped forward and hit Superboy with a large hammer forged by his water-bearers.

"Enough!" Aqualad shouted.

Superboy shouted back in anger as Aqualad stood in front of Trance. It was just the two of them now, and Superboy was obviously a tough opponent. He took down Kid Flash and Robin as if it was child's place, and while Robin was powerless, he was skilled opponent.

"We're trying to help you!" Aqualad tried to reason with Superboy.

It didn't seem as if Superboy wanted to hear it because he attacked again. He went straight for Trance who didn't have time to register what was happening before she was literally rammed. She went sailing through the air and hit the metal door hard. She felt the air leave her lungs as the back of her head was rattled as well. She slipped to the ground with her sword clattering to the ground beside her. She felt darkness creep in and the last thing she saw were sparks of light as Aqualad tried to shock Superboy into defeat before things went completely black.


	3. Chapter 3

Hey, guys, sorry it's been such a long time since my last post. As some of you know, not that long ago my family and I suffered the loss of a family member and a close family friend. Both through suicide, and it was hard to recover from that. I tried picking up writing in a few of my stories and even managed to post a new one. However, we suffered another loss as my grandfather passed away last week. And my mother and stepfather have had a falling out, so we're in the process of finding a new home as he no longer wants us in his. And on top of that, I'm still working and going to school full time. I'm just stressed out and not really in the mood for writing much recently. So I apologize if there won't be any posts on anything for a while. I might get a chapter up here and there like the one I'm posting today in my SDS story, but probably won't have anything else for a while. Once again I apologize, and I promise that I'll try to bounce back as quickly as possible, so you hopefully don't have to wait much longer.


	4. Fireworks (Part I)

Coco: Hey, guys, sorry for the long wait. I'm still slowly getting myself to write more, and I would like to thank you for your patience.

* * *

Dr. Desmond didn't know how things could have turned out like this. First that fire, which origin's were still unknown, and now he had to talk to the board of directors about the four sidekicks they had locked away in the cloning chambers. The doctor took a shaky breath before stepping into the center of his office as several screens fell from the ceiling and lit up. Figures were displayed on the screens but their true appearances unknown.

"Dr. Desmond," A voice came from the first screen. "You require an audience with the Light?"

"Uh, yes," Desmond replied. "Very sorry to disturb you at this late hour."

"Just make your report," One of the figures urged.

Obviously, they weren't in mood for small talk, and Desmond didn't want to upset them anymore than he had too. He took a deep breath before speaking again.

"Uh, well, we had a small fire here at Project Cadmus," Desmond began to explain. "The origin of the incident is still unclear, but it seems to have attracted…unwanted attention. Four sidekicks—Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Trance—breeched security. They found and released the weapon—the Superboy. Of course, the clone is under our telepathic control and as ordered, turned against his one be liberators. The four are contained and I don't believe the League knows they're here."

Desmond paused to take another deep breath as he was unsure how to go about this next part.

"Uh, what should I do with them?" Desmond asked.

"Clone them." The second voice ordered after a moment's pause.

"The substitutes shall serve the Light and only the light." The first voice added.

"And the originals?" Desmond questioned.

"Dispose of them," The first voice ordered. "Leave no trace."

Desmond smirked while liking the plan. It would get rid of the issue they have now and give them more pawns to place within the ranks of the heroes. However, before he could go do as ordered, a third voice cut in from the Light.

"If I may," The voice began. "I believe we are overlooking something. What of Trance?"

As Desmond blinked in confusion at the question presented, the first voice hummed in thought.

"Yes, I understand why you would ask of her." The first voice asked. "Do you believe you could bring her…to the Light?"

* * *

WASHINGTON D.C.

JULY 5TH

00:01 EDT

_'Time runs short. You must awaken…you must awaken now!'_

Trance gasped with her eyes shooting open as the unfamiliar voice rang through her head. Despite the rude awakening, she quickly calmed her breaths as she did a survey of her current predicament. She noticed she was in a pod of some sort and glancing up she saw her wrists bound. She wriggled them a bit and knew she wouldn't just be slipping her hands out. No matter, there were other means of breaking free. She glanced to the side while catching glimpses of the boys in their own pods. At least they were all still together. Her eyes then caught movement, which had them flickering down to see Superboy staring.

"What? What do you want?!" Kid Flash, who was also aware of the clone's presence, snapped.

Superboy didn't reply and only kept staring at the four protégés. Something that didn't set well with the speedster.

"Quit staring." Kid demanded. "You're creeping me out."

"Calm down, Kid." Trance spoke evenly.

"Yeah, how about we not tick off the guy who can fry us with a single look?" Robin added.

Kid Flash just frowned though didn't go back to yelling at the clone. As Kid finally quietened, Trance put her focus on escaping as Aqualad went to address Superboy.

"We only sought to help you." Aqualad pointed out gently to Superboy.

"Yeah, we free you and your turn on us," Kid Flash snipped. "How's that for gratitude?!"

Robin wanted to roll his eyes at his friend, but resisted. The Boy Wonder knew getting out was more important than constantly trying to keep Kid's mouth shut. With that in mind, he pushed out the pick in the index finger of his glove to start trying to get the locks to open on his restraints. He could see Trance doing the same from the corner of his eye.

"Kid, please be quiet now," Aqualad hushed the speedster this time. "I don't believe our new friend was in full control of his actions."

Superboy's expression finally shifted as he lost the glare. He then finally opened his mouth.

"Well, what if I…what if I wasn't?" He spoke.

Kid Flash seemed surprised by hearing the clone's voice, and Trance even paused in what she was doing to look at the boy. It looked as if they were making progress at least.

"He can talk?!" Kid exclaimed.

Superboy's hands clenched into fists and he was right back to glaring. Though his glare was firmly set on a certain speedster instead of the group as a whole.

"Yes, _he_ can." Superboy growled.

Trance, Robin, and Aqualad gave Kid Flash a look. The speedster at least had the decency to look a little sheepish.

"It's not like I said it." He said with a pout.

Deciding to ignore Kid Flash's pout, Aqualad returned his attention on Superboy.

"The genomorphs taught you—telepathically." Aqualad commented.

"They taught me much." Superboy said. "I can read, write. I know the names of things."

Trance had to say she was a bit impressed, but she was a tad concerned with just how much they were teaching him along with what his _study material_ consisted of.

"But have you've seen them?" Robin asked. "Have they actually ever let you see…the sky? Or the sun?"

"Images are implanted in my mind," Superboy replied before his expression faltered. "But…no, I have not seen them."

"Do you know what you are?" Aqualad questioned. "_Who_ you are?"

The boy's expression shifted once again with clear focus and intent shining in his eyes as he spoke next.

"I am the Superboy," He spoke clearly. "A genomorph. A clone made from the DNA of the Superman—created to replace him if he should perish—to destroy him if he should turn from the light."

Robin and Kid Flash exchanged a bothered glance as Trance narrowed her eyes. This one was definitely dangerous. As was what Cadmus was trying to do. Replace the Man of Steel? Destroy him? Just who was funding this kind of work?

"To be like Superman is a worthy aspiration." Aqualad said keeping calm. "But like Superman you deserve a life of your own—beyond that solar suit, beyond your pod, beyond Cadmus."

"I live because of Cadmus." Superboy retorted sharply. "It is my home!"

Superboy then flinched slightly when a cracking noise entered his ears. His eyes snapped over to Trance, but the girl was simply hanging in her pod, staring back at him. He narrowed his eyes. He could have sworn the noise originated from her pod. However, he was distracted from his pondering when Robin continued the topic of their conversation.

"Your home is a test tube." Robin pointed out to him. "We can show you the sun."

"Uh, pretty sure it's after midnight," Kid Flash said. "But we can show you the moon!"

He added this last part quickly when Robin threw a glare in the redhead's direction.

"We can show you…introduce you to Superman." Aqualad added.

Aqualad's words seemed to nearly have the clone won over. Clearly Superboy wished to meet the man from which he was cloned. Any child would want to know their father, wouldn't they? Clone or otherwise.

"No, they can't." Desmond interrupted as he, Guardian, and Dr. Spencer entered the room. "They'll be otherwise preoccupied. Activate the cloning process on Robin, Kid Flash, and Aqualad. Trance will be transported into another lab."

Trance narrowed her eyes wondering why she was being singled out. Was it due to something simple like her gender? Like were female clones not doable or something? Or something else? Though if they were going to move her, it'd really speed up the whole escaping process.

"Pass," Robin said quickly. "Batcave is crowded enough."

Desmond ignored the teen as he turned to Guardian with a scowl set upon his face.

"Before you take Trance get the weapon back in its pod!" Desmond ordered.

"Hey, why does he get to call Supey an it?" Kid Flash questioned. "And what the heck do you want with Trance, huh?"

Again, the teens were ignored as Guardian went to guide Superboy out of the room. As Guardian was about to lead Superboy out, the clone glanced one more time at Aqualad.

"Please, help us." The Atlantean tried once more to plead with the clone.

Superboy jerked his shoulder out of Guardian's grip and for a moment the two stared each other down.

"Don't start thinking now." Desmond said with his genomorph jumping onto the boy's shoulder.

Its horns lit up and in a few short seconds, Superboy's expression became a void of no emotion.

"See, you're not a real boy." Desmond explained. "You're a weapon and you belong to me!...Well, to Cadmus—same thing. Now get back to your pod!"

Superboy turned without a fuss and left the room with the door closing behind him as Desmond nodded to Dr. Spencer. A few clicks later on the switchboard, sharp barbs pierced the boys' chests. They cried out as electric shocks were sent through them while their blood was being drawn. Trance grit her teeth though tried to remain calm as Desmond turned to her.

"Now, get her out of here." He ordered. "The board has plans for Trance. She will become a new piece to the Light's great plan."

"Will I now?" Trance questioned as Dr. Spencer opened the girl's pod.

Desmond didn't respond to her question—not that she expected him to. Guardian then stepped up to climb up to the girl's pod. He had a set of cuffs in hand and as he reached for her, she suddenly shot out her fist, which was somehow free. Desmond and Spencer gasped as Trance, who quickly freed her other wrist, dropped down out of her pod. She cracked her thumb back into place as Guardian, who had fallen to the floor, regained his bearings.

"But how?!" Desmond exclaimed.

"Did you not just hear me relocate my thumb?" Trance asked.

She then had to duck under Guardian when he threw out a kick towards her head. She whirled around him while grabbing her sword, which had been placed off to the side. She unsheathed it in enough time to block Guardian's shield, which he had tried to bring down on her.

"You should give up while you can, kid." Guardian said. "Make it easier on yourself."

Trance didn't reply verbally, but Guardian noticed the slightest curve of her lips as if she was amused by his words. She gave a shout as she pushed forward with surprising force. Guardian, who wasn't prepared for it, stumbled backwards. Trance was about to follow through with a following swing when suddenly the door was ripped away. Trance blinked slightly at the sight of Superboy forcing his way back in. Apparently when the door was ripped away, there was some kind of short in the system because the barbs shocking the boys stopped. Superboy threw the door off to the side and with his presence, she was completely forgotten about. She hurried over to the switchboard to force Spencer out of the way as Desmond, the genomorph with long horns, and Guardian tried to rush Superboy.

"I told you to get back in your pod!" Desmond snapped

He then grunted in pain as he was easily swatted away alongside Guardian and the genomorph by Superboy.

"Don't give me orders." Superboy snarled.

He turned his eyes on Trance who was tapping away on buttons. She barely acknowledged him as she worked, so he turned to the boys.

"You here to help us or fry us?" Kid Flash asked. "Because it seems like a little miss someone is too busy to help."

He shot a look at Trance who barely flickered her eyes up at Kid Flash in acknowledgement before getting back to whatever she was doing. He sighed then looked to Superboy as the cloned narrowed his eyes. After a moment of silence, the cloned hummed.

"I don't appear to have heat vision." Superboy commented. "So, I suppose helping is my own option."

"Oh, the boy has a sense of humor," Trance jested. "Lovely."

Robin then managed to set himself free and drop down to the ground onto his feet. He received a look from Trance and he sighed.

"Yeah, I know." He said. "If Batman was here, he'd have my head. But, dislocating your thumb, really?"

Trance gave an uncaring shrug as Kid Flash watched the two in annoyance since he was still stuck as they were casually conversing.

"Seriously?" Kid gripped. "That's what you're worried about? The whole League is going to have our heads after tonight! Now, would it be too much to ask if you could just—ack!"

Kid Flash didn't finish his ranting as Robin and Trance hit two separate buttons that released the redhead. He fell flat on his face causing Robin to cackle and Trance smirk. He looked up to glare at them, but he was ignored as Robin turned to Superboy.

"I'll get Kid Mouth off the floor." He said. "You get Aqualad."

"Don't you give me orders either," Superboy growled.

Though he did as Robin asked and freed the Atlantean. Aqualad thanked Superboy as Trance typed a few more things into the system.

"Babe, just what are you doing?" Kid asked after Robin got him to his feet.

"I figured if we couldn't use our comms to call our mentors that I'd tap into Cadmus's system to send a distress signal." Trance replied. "Shouldn't take the League long to get here now."

The boys seemed a bit surprised by her thinking as they hadn't thought about that.

"Good thinking," Aqualad complimented as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

"I know," Trance, who placed her now sheathed weapon back on her side, said. "Now, I think it is time we leave, yes?"

No one argued with her there, and soon all five teens were hurrying past Desmond and his goons.

"You—you'll never get out of here!" Desmond snapped. "I'll have you back in pods by morning."

Trance didn't stop to give the man a second glance though Robin paused long enough to destroy the pods with the teens' blood. Desmond stood while taking in the destruction the five teenagers left in their wake. His teeth grit together before he turned to Double X.

"Activate every genomorph in Cadmus." He ordered.

Trance ran alongside Robin as the teens worked their ways back out the way they came. Sure, the League could be here at any moment to save the day, but they couldn't exactly wait around like sitting ducks. Hence trying to get out. Besides, Trance really didn't want her mother to have to save her.

"We are still 42-levels below ground." Aqualad reminded them. "But if we can make the elevator…"

Aqualad trailed off as their path was soon blocked by the mammoth-sized genomorphs. The sight of them brought the protégés to a pause. Going back proved not safe either because when they turned around, those genomorphs with the razor claws were literally coming through the walls. Trance and the boys turned back towards the larger genomorphs as one took a swing at them. They dodged with ease before the protégés hurried around the giant creatures. They were right at the elevator, but paused when hearing Superboy shout. They turned seeing that instead of running pass the creatures they he decided to fight them head on.

"Superboy, the goal is escape!" Aqualad reminded him as the boy's fighting caused some of the hallway to cave in. "Not to bury ourselves here."

"You want escape?!" Superboy shouted.

He proceeded to pick up one of the creatures to throw into the others. It knocked its fellow genomorphs down as Superboy finally joined them. Aqualad then ripped the elevators door open to give them entry into the elevator shaft. Robin and Trance quickly activated their grappling guns. As Robin started heading up, Trance held out her hand to Kid Flash. He took it before she hit the button that would pull them both up. Superboy grabbed Aqualad then jumped into the shaft and up into the air.

For a moment it looked as Superboy would fly Aqualad up to the top floor. However, all were shocked when the boys started falling down. Thinking quickly Robin, who had stopped just outside sublevel 15, threw out a birdarang. It caught into the wall, and Aqualad managed to snatch it while keeping a grip on Superboy. Trance and Kid Flash joined the group as Superboy looked down dejectedly.

"Superman can fly." He said. "Why can't I fly?"

"Don't know." Kid Flash said. "But you looks like you can hop buildings in a single bound—still cool."

He was helping the boys down when a whizzing sound reached Robin and Trance's ears. They looked up seeing an elevator was heading straight towards them.

"Thank you," Superboy said to Aqualad as the others didn't seem to notice what Robin and Trance had.

"Guys!" Robin got their attention. "This is going to have to be our stop!"

He gestured to the oncoming elevator. Superboy and Aqualad broke through the doors keeping them from sublevel 15, and they all managed to get through before the elevator could hit them. The genomorphs were already on them, so the group of five quickly turned left down another hallway. They could hear the creatures behind them, but as long as they kept ahead that was all that mattered.

"Turn left!" Superboy suddenly ordered. "Left!"

Kid Flash did as Superboy said to do with the others bringing up the rear behind him.

"Right!" Superboy called out next.

Again, the teens listened as they turned down the hall, which lead straight to a dead end. Or so Trance thought before noticing the vent above their heads.

"Great directions, Supey!" Kid snapped. "Are you trying to get us repodded?!"

Trance gave him a nudge to be quiet as Superboy looked down in genuine confusion.

"No, I…I don't understand." Superboy said.

"Don't apologize!" Robin interjected. "This is perfect! Trance, give me a boost!"

Trance nodded before standing under the vent with her hands cupped and knees slightly bent. Robin placed his foot in her hands and she lifted him up so he could grab the grate over the vent. He pulled it off before climbing inside. He turned around to reach out a hand to Trance who took it. He helped her up, and soon the others followed one after one. The teens crawled through the vents with Robin in the lead using his blueprints to take them where they needed to go.

"Man, at this rate we'll never get out." Kid Flash complained.

Superboy shushed him as he paused in crawling. His actions had the others glancing back at him.

"Listen," He told them.

They all listened closely and soon the sounds of growling genomorphs entered their ears. This had them hurrying on even faster through the vents. Eventually Robin led them out and once they were out, he hurried over to a panel in the wall. He opened it while connecting his cord into the port in the panel. He typed quickly on his holographic keyboard before he smirked.

"Heh, I hacked the motion sensors." He informed his friends.

"Sweet," Kid Flash complimented.

"Still plenty of them between us and out." Robin reminded the speedster.

Kid Flash, who was sporting a grin, didn't seem too worried as he placed his goggles over his eyes.

"But I've finally got room to move!" Kid Flash said.

And without a moment's hesitation he pushed open the door that led to the stairs. He zoomed up the flights of stairs with ease with his friends right behind him. Superboy brought up the rear. Genomorphs appeared in front of them, but Kid Flash cleared the way as he kept charging forward.

"There's more behind us!" Robin warned.

Superboy paused and turned to destroy the stairs behind them, which sent the genomorphs falling and made sure they wouldn't be pursued. Not on the stairs anyway. They made it to sublevel one where they were almost home free. However, large steal doors shut to prevent them from going any further, and Kid, who was moving too fast to stop in time, slammed right into them. The speedster groaned sitting up as his friends finally caught up.

"We're cut off from the street." Aqualad said frowning.

"Thanks, my head hadn't noticed." Kid Flash muttered sarcastically.

Superboy stepped up first to try a crack at the doors as the alarms continued to blare overhead. Aqualad joined him and even with their combined strength the doors didn't budge. Trance highly doubted explosives would work either. She glanced around wondering what to do now when her eyes landed on a small door behind Robin who was trying to hack their way through the steel doors.

"Can't hack this fast enough." Robin said as frowning at the screen in front of him.

The teens then turned when they heard the genomorphs closing in once more. A few were even coming around the corner already and in sight.

"If this way is blocked and retracing our steps isn't an option, I suggest taking another route." Trance suggested.

She kicked the smaller door to their right open to run through it, and the boys were quick to follow. They didn't get far, however, as Guardian and a little army of genomorphs awaited them. The teens prepared to fight, but soon crumbled to their feet when the little g-gnomes' horns glowed. As Trance and her fellow sidekicks fell unconscious, Superboy remained awake even if in a dazed state. He tried to comprehend what was happening when a voice entered his mind.

_'Perhaps for the sake of all genomorphs, our brother Superboy should make up his own mind.'_

Superboy's eyes snapped open wide as he turned to the one who spoke in his head. It was the thin, genomorph with long horns—the one who had forced the protégés towards Superboy's pod hours ago.

_'It was you,'_ He realized.

_'Yes, brother,'_ The genomorph replied. _'I set the fire and lured your new friends into Cadmus. Woke them when they were in danger.'_

_'And guided me…why?'_ Superboy questioned.

He didn't understand this genomorph's reasoning, but he had a feeling that the danger has passed as the other genomorphs gathered around the one conversing with him.

_'Because you are our hope,'_ The genomorph—Double X—said. _'The Genomorph Hero. You will blaze a trail for all our brothers—showing us the way to freedom.'_

As Double X spoke, the genomorph on Guardian's shoulder left the hero's person while releasing him from the mind control. Guardian groaned disorientated as he held his head. And as Guardian came to his senses, the protégés also began to wake. Trance shook her head as she pushed herself up. This was even more of an embarrassment. Unconscious twice in one night. She then stiffened when seeing they were still very surrounded and very outnumbered. However, it seemed as if the atmosphere has changed since she took her small—unplanned nap.

_'What is your choice, brother?'_ Double X's voice rang through all their minds.

The teens looked to Superboy as they wondered just what they had missed. Superboy kept his eyes on Double X, however, as he made up his mind.

"I choose freedom." Superboy chose.

Trance exchanged a look with Robin and Kid Flash to see if they knew what was going on, but both of them shook their heads. Aqualad turned to the hero in the room as Guardian seemed to be clear of mind now.

"Guardian," Aqualad addressed.

"Go," Guardian said without missing a beat. "I'll deal with Desmond."

"I think not," Said man spoke from behind the genomorphs.

The creatures parted to reveal the scientist who held up a glowing blue vile in his hand. Trance reached for a few explosive discs, but otherwise remained still as she waited to see what the mad scientist had in mind now.

"Project Blockbuster will give me the power restore order to Cadmus." He said.

He then drank it without hesitation and as he started transforming before their very eyes, Guardian moved in front of the teens. Desmond's skin was ripped away to reveal new darker blue skin. His body also grew to a monstrous size and as the transformation came to a halt, Desmond snarled at the teens and Guardian. Despite the situation, Trance felt her lips turn up into a grin.


	5. Fireworks (Part II)

Trance still had the explosive disks in hand as she waited to see what the newly transformed Desmond would do. Would he attack first? Or would he wait for them? It would seem as if they would make the first move as Guardian ordered them back before rushing forward. He was swatted away like a fly by Desmond and knocked out after slamming into the wall. Without missing a beat, Trance threw her disk bombs which hit Desmond head on. They exploded in his face, but he hardly seemed phased as he snarled at the girl.

He charged, which had her jumping up and over the scientist. He was quick to whirl around and reach for her as soon as her feet hit the ground. However, before he could reach her, Superboy threw himself forward to hit Desmond. Desmond hit him right back, but neither powerhouses seemed too perturbed by the hits they just took. Superboy went to attack again—while managing to get in a few punches, but Desmond batted him away in the end. The clone hit the floor, but was quick to get up. He tried to jump Desmond once more, and this time the scientist jumped up to meet his attack, which sent both through the floor and up to the first level of the building.

"Okay, that's one way to bust through the ceiling." Robin commented as he pulled out his grappling gun.

"Do you think lab coat planned that?" Kid asked as he grabbed Robin's belt.

The two went flying through the opening created by the two battling above them. And not to waste time, Trance deployed her own grappling hook.

"I doubt he's planning anything anymore." Aqualad said then glanced at their female companion as she held out her hand.

He took it and the two went flying up and out of the first sublevel. Once they were with their friends, Trance returned the grappling gun to her belt. She then looked up just as Desmond threw Superboy right at them. The clone hit them both hard, which knocked the air out of Trance for a moment. After being airborne for a few seconds, they and Superboy hit the floor several feet back. Kid Flash and Robin quickly went to help the three up as Desmond let out a roar. His roar was met by five determined teens who were ready to keep going.

They all rushed forward with Kid Flash easily leading the attack with his superior speed. He slid under the large beast's legs, which distracted Desmond from Aqualad and Superboy who both threw their fists at Desmond's face in unison. As their attack sent the scientist teetering backwards, Kid Flash braced himself behind the man's legs to send him toppling to the ground.

"Learned that one in kindergarten." Kid said as Robin and Trance flipped over the speedster.

They threw bombs at the scientist who roared and swiped them away to detonate safely away from him. Trance, who didn't miss a beat, drew her sword and brought it down towards Desmond's face. However, the scientist brought up his arm to protect him, and as Trance predicted, the blade didn't even bring a scratch as it deflected off of his hard skin. She then gasped as Desmond managed to snatch her before she could get out of his reach. He squeezed her torso tightly and she felt her bones groan in protest.

Just when she thought she might get some broken ones, Superboy tackled Desmond to force him to release Trance. She dropped down onto her feet as Desmond turned the tables and slammed Superboy into one of the pillars. Aqualad hurried to the clone's aid, but the two—despite their skill and strength—were easily overpowered. Desmond threw Aqualad to the floor where the Atlantean laid dazed for a few seconds before the goliath tossed Superboy to the side.

"We need a plan," Trance, who sheathed her weapon once more as it was useless against their foe, said to Robin as Kid Flash went zooming in to try and distract Desmond from their downed comrades. "Direct hits are not fazing him."

"I know," Robin said as Kid was easily thrown into Aqualad by Desmond thus sending them both flying. "Working on it. Think you can keep him distracted?"

Trance's lips turned up once more as if she was amused by the Boy Wonder's question. She nodded her head in reply before heading off into battle once more. As Desmond was smashing Aqualad into another pillar, Trance attached several explosives to his side before fleeting away. They exploded with Desmond, who dropped the Atlantean, roaring in anger. He whirled around to face Trance who waved him forward tauntingly. He growled before rushing toward the girl.

She dodged his meaty fist which he swung at her, and as he went to make another grab for her, Trance jumped up and wrapped her arm around his neck to swing herself onto his back. She placed more explosives then flipped off of Desmond get out of range. The explosives went off sending the scientist stumbling into one of the pillars which started crumbling at impact. And when Superboy, who recovered, jumped forward to tackle Desmond, it destroyed the pillar completely, which had Robin's eyes widening in realization.

"Of course!" Robin shouted. "KF, get over here!"

Kid Flash didn't waste any time in regrouping with his friend as the other three teens kept Desmond preoccupied. Robin quickly explained the plan to the speedster as Trance was being thrown into a wall. She grunted in pain as she slid down onto the floor. This fight wasn't going well at all. To say she felt a bit embarrassed was an understatement.

'_More training is obviously acquired,'_ She thought to herself.

She then rolled out of the way when Aqualad was thrown into the wall she had just been leaning against. She reached out to help the boy up as Kid Flash jumped back into the fray by punching Desmond, who had his grip on Superboy, in the face. The attack tore off what was left of Desmond's human skin, and after Kid got over the initial shock of holding the man's flesh in hand, he waved it tauntingly at Desmond.

"Got your nose." Kid Flash sang.

Desmond, who dropped Superboy, roared as he turned towards his new target to try and attack the speedster. Kid Flash managed to get away from Desmond, but the former human kept trying to land a hit on the redhead. And as he distracted Desmond, Trance returned her attention to Aqualad. She squeezed his shoulder in silent inquiry.

"I'm fine." He assured her. "Are you?"

She nodded before the two of them stood up along with Superboy. Though before they could join Kid Flash in the fight, Robin called out to them. The three gathered around the shorter teen who quickly told them his plan. Once he finished, they were quick to set it into motion.

As the boys demolished a few pillars, Trance moved back into the fight to help keep Desmond busy alongside Kid Flash. And at a good time too as the speedster had been tripped up after some rubble hit his back. Kid Flash gasped thinking he was going to be hit, but Trance got in between him and Desmond and using her sword, Trance managed to redirect Desmond's fist, so the large creature tumbled to the side.

"Thanks, beautiful!" Kid said with a wink before he rammed into Desmond, which sent the scientist into one of the pillars thus breaking it.

Trance nodded her head then threw a few explosive disks at Desmond. They didn't really hurt the man, but they definitely kept his attention off of her friends, who moved onto the next part of Robin's plan, as his focus was completely on her now. He charged her, but before he could reach her, Kid Flash scooped her up and ran away.

"I gotcha, babe," Kid Flash said. "Now hold on tight."

Trance put her arms around Kid Flash's neck to do as told as the speedster ran across the water created by Aqualad to spread it across the floor. Desmond was nearly on top of them as the redhead paused in wait. However, they were kept safe as Superboy jumped in front of them to knock Desmond down onto the wet floor.

Kid then got him and Trance safely out of the way as Aqualad ran electricity through his arms into the water thus shocking Desmond. And if the man had still been human, he surely would have died from the electricity. Kid Flash set Trance down as Desmond started crumbling due to the electricity coursing through him. Though they didn't have time to pause for long.

"Move!" Robin shouted to all of them.

The five teens quickly rushed for the exit as the explosives Robin set finally detonated thus destroying the last of the support beams to the building. As the place came crumbling down around them, it was obvious they weren't going to make it to the door. When realizing this, Superboy and Aqualad—the sturdiest out of the young heroes—quickly pushed the other three to the ground to cover them from the falling building.

Trance found herself smushed together with Robin as Aqualad protected the two, and after what seemed like forever, the crashing noises and shaking finally came to a stop. A few seconds later, Superboy moved the stone wall that was on top of them off, which allowed the teens to breath easily. Trance let out a breath she had been holding as the cool night air caressed her sweaty, dirt covered skin. She felt swore all over and as she breathed, her body screamed in protest.

"We…did it." Aqualad said between gasps as he sat next to Trance and Robin.

Robin grinned despite his condition as he too was panting to try and catch his breath.

"Was there…ever…any doubt?" He asked.

Trance shot him a look in reply, but he just laughed before he and Kid went to exchange a high five. They winced though at the action as they quickly clutched their sides. Trance snorted at the both of them, which received her pouts from the two teens. Aqualad smiled at all three of them in amusement before looking to Superboy who went over to the defeated Desmond with a troubled look on his face. When seeing the clone's bothered expression, the teen heroes got to their feet.

"See, the moon?" Kid Flash spoke to the boy to distract him from his thoughts.

Superboy turned looking up at the sky towards the moon. He looked at it with wonder in his eyes, and Trance had to admit, it looked rather beautiful tonight. However, her eyes soon narrowed when noticing a speck appearing in the light of the moon and as it flew closer, she could make out it was Superman.

"Oh, and Superman." Kid said as he noticed him too. "Do we keep our promises or what?"

Along with Superman came the rest of the League, and when seeing their expressions, Trance knew they were in very big trouble. In fact, her mother who was dropped off alongside Batman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Aquaman thanks to the help of one of the Green Lanterns, looked positively livid. Despite the look, Trance met her mother's gaze without falter.

For the longest moment, no one spoke, but then Superboy stepped forward to stand in front of Superman. The man in blue looked curiously down at the boy. Superboy smiled while moving his ripped solar suit up to reveal the s-symbol on his chest. The revelation had eyes going wide as the entire League stared on.

"Is that what I think it is?" Batman asked.

"He doesn't like to be called an it," Kid Flash not so quietly whispered when he moved to stand beside Superboy.

Robin rolled his eyes at the redhead though the speedster was quickly ignored as Superboy spoke.

"I'm Superman's clone." Superboy stated without hestiation.

With this confirmation, many of the League became noticeably concerned. Though the ever so poised Batman merely narrowed his eyes.

"Start talking," Batman ordered.

The teens exchanged a look as if wondering who needed to go first or who would speak for them. When none of them stepped forward, Wraith moved her eyes onto her daughter.

"Trance, report." She said sternly.

Tranced sighed though did step forward to face the heroes standing in front of them.

"After our mentors, Martian Manhunter, and Red Tornado left in response to Zatara's distress call, we became curious over Project Cadmus." Trance spoke up loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Yeah, so I hacked into the Justice League's supercomputer." Robin confessed. "But we didn't find much on it in the system."

Batman's eyes narrowed even more when hearing his ward did such a thing. Though to be honest, he wasn't surprised in the slightest.

"Though since Batman had mentioned having suspicions about Cadmus, we decided to investigate," Trance continued. "Upon arrival, we—Kid Flash, Robin, and I—entered the building while Aqualad saved the trapped scientist. As the fire seemed under control, we left it to the emergency responders."

"Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first," Aqualad added. "However, I had spotted someone—or rather something—disappear through the elevator doors. Later we would come to discover the creature was a genomorph, one of the many living underneath our feet now in Cadmus's underground base."

"Genomorph?" Flash questioned as he tilted his head.

It wasn't a word any of the League were familiar with, so Flash wasn't the only one looking a bit confused.

"Yeah, they're like living weapons!" Kid Flash pipped up. "With all sorts of abilities! Rob managed to download their stats and information while we were down there."

Robin pulled out the drive in which the data was all stored and handed it over to Batman who had held out his hand expectantly.

"We had followed the genomorph to the elevator where Robin discovered the express elevator, which led us to discovering the secret underground works of Cadmus," Trance said bringing things back to where they were earlier. "We discovered the genomorphs but were then caught snooping by Guardian—apparently the scientists here were using Guardian as their security guard as they had the genomorphs keep him underneath psychic control. And while we managed to escape and keep moving, we were brought down by Superboy when we made an attempt to save him once discovering the clone."

Superboy's face showed guilt, so Kid Flash patted the boy in a consoling manner on the arm.

"It would seem Cadmus was using the genomorphs to control Superboy as well, and after managing to break free from that control, he saved us from Dr. Desmond—Cadmus's lead scientist—before he could manage to make clones of ourselves." Trance continued

She left out how Desmond had had other plans for her as she didn't want to worry her mother. And she didn't want to give out that information to the rest of the League as it was something she wished to look into. Lucky for her, none of the boys mentioned it either.

"Once free, I sent a distress signal to the entirety of the League to come here via Cadmus's own computers." Trance told them. "We would have called sooner, but our comms were unable to get signal underground."

Flash, who had opened his mouth, closed it and Trance could only guess he was going to mention something about them calling for help sooner _before_ she mentioned why they didn't.

"We made our way out and nearly reached the surface when Desmond, who was desperately trying to take back control, turned himself into that creature over there," Robin said pointing to the fallen Desmond. "We managed to defeat him in the end, and well, here we are now."

He shrugged his shoulders as he crossed his arms over his chest. The League exchanged glances amongst each other before Batman turned back to the teens.

"We will discuss what to do from here," Batman said. "Until then wait here."

The heroes moved away from the teens who could only wait as they were told. As their mentors and a few others spoke amongst themselves, the Hawks and Green Lanterns detained Desmond.

"So…think they're going to ban us from hero work?" Kid Flash asked looking a little worried.

"Even if they tried, would we listen?" Trance replied.

She knew that even if her mother tried to forbid her from hero work that Trance would do so anyway. She was trained since she was a child, and just because her mother was worried about her well-being didn't mean she could just force Trance from doing what she's meant to be doing.

"They trained us for a reason, right?" Robin pointed out.

Trance hummed in agreement as Kid Flash nodded his head as well. Though he groaned a bit in pain as he rubbed his sore neck.

"Man, I just want to go home and rest." Kid said. "My body is going to hurt forever."

"Don't you have like accelerated healing?" Robin retorted. "You'll be better by tomorrow morning. Trance and I…not so much."

Yes, Trance was certain she'd be sore for a few days. Hopefully there were no broken bones either, as that would take even longer. Kid Flash just rolled his eyes at the younger teen, which had Robin smirking in return as he knew he was right and Kid couldn't say otherwise. Trance watched them in amusement alongside Aqualad before the two older teen turns their heads when Superman approached Superboy.

"We'll, uh, we'll figure something out for you." Superman told the clone. "The League, I mean. For now…I better make sure they get that Blockbuster creature squared away."

He then took off into the sky to follow after the Hawks, Green Lanterns, and Captain Atom who were escorting Desmond away. Probably to Bell Reve. As he disappeared off to the sky, Superboy looked down with his hands curling into fists. Though before he could mull over Superman's dismissal for long, Batman and the other mentors stepped up.

"Cadmus will be investigated," Batman said. "All 52 levels. But let's make one thing clear—!"

"You should have called!" Flash said. "Sooner. Much sooner. Like before you went underground."

He had added this part quickly as he looked pointedly at Trance who looked off to the side. Kid Flash held back a snort from his uncle's worrying as the Dark Knight looked at the older speedster in annoyance.

"End results aside, we are not happy," Batman said plainly. "You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives. You will not be doing this again."

Trance narrowed her eyes when Batman said that, and based on her mother's expression, she could see Wraith supported the decision. However, Trance and her fellow teen heroes did not.

"I am sorry," Aqualad spoke calmly. "But we will."

The statement was silently supported by the other teen heroes as they stepped up beside the young Atlantean.

"Aqualad, stand down," Aquaman ordered his sidekick.

Despite the order, Aqualad did not falter as he placed his hand on his chest while facing his king.

"Apologies, my king, but no." Aqualad said surprising Aquaman. "We did good work here tonight. The work you trained us to do. Together—on our own—we forged something powerful—important."

"If this is about your treatment at the Hall," Flash began. "The four of you—!"

"The five of us," Kid Flash quickly corrected "And it's not."

Robin stepped up next while looking at his mentor with an almost pleading expression.

"Batman, we're ready to use what you taught us," Robin said. "Or why teach us at all?"

"You worry for us because we are young, which I can understand," Trance added. "However, we have been at your sides to fight the good fight for quite some time. Some of us for years. You cannot take away our right to continue in the fight just because we are ready to move forward without you holding our hands and you are not."

She said this with a pointed look at her mother who had lost some of her angry expression from earlier. And while she still seemed upset, she also looked more understanding.

"Why let them tell us what to do?" Superboy demanded as he stepped up as well. "It's simple. Get on board, or get out of the way."

It went tensely quiet for a few long moments as Batman exchanged a glance with the other mentors. He then looked back to the teens.

"Give me three days," Batman said.

He left things at that before walking away with the other mentors starting to follow.

"I hope you can find your way home, Kid." Flash said. "_Without_ causing any more trouble."

Kid Flash snorted though nodded his head. Flash gave the teens one final stern look—leave it to Barry to be such a mother hen though Trance found that trait of his endearing—as he and Aquaman, who told Aqualad to wait for him, walked away.

"I will meet you at home," Wraith told Trance before following after Batman.

Once the adults walked away, the teens exchanged a glance amongst each other.

"Three days isn't long," Kid Flash said with a shrug.

Trance looked at him with a quirked brow and he sighed while scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah, it'll probably be the longest three days of our lives." He agreed.

Robin frowned feeling the same way. The three shorter teens then looked to Aqualad when he cleared his throat. He looked pointedly at Superboy, which brought forth another problem entirely.

"So, who's taking him home?" Robin asked. "You know, Bats isn't going to be welcoming up our place."

"He cannot go to Atlantis either." Aqualad said.

Yes, for obvious reasons he couldn't go to Atlantis. They didn't need to drown the poor clone on his first night outside of Cadmus. All eyes then fell on Trance and Kid Flash who stood side by side. Trance gave a shrug to signal she didn't care if she took the clone with her or not. Though it would seem Kid was all too eager to have the honor.

"Just come on home with me, Supey!" Kid Flash said. "We'll have so much fun! You'll see!"

Superboy didn't seem too convinced, and Robin snickered behind his hand as he almost felt bad for the guy.

* * *

Trance sighed as she and her mother finally returned to their home in the Ukraine. She pulled off her mask to reveal her green orbs. She felt achy all over and just wanted to sleep. She walked through their apartment towards her room while stripping off her jacket as well as she went. Her body groaned in complaint at the movement, but Trance ignored the feeling. Though she probably did need her body looked over to ensure there weren't any serious injuries, but she really wanted to put that off until tomorrow.

_'Three days,'_ Trance thought to herself. _'Batman told us to give him that much time, and during that time no hero work.'_

A part of her was annoyed with decision, but she supposed she should be thankful that their mentors seemed to be entertaining the idea of the teens working without them. At least from time to time. After reaching her room, the young heroine tossed her jacket and mask onto the chair near her vanity. She then placed her belt along with them though she propped her sword against the wall next to her bed.

**"Natalie,"** Her mother called out to the teen.

Trance—or rather Natalie—turned her head to look at her mother—Elizaveta—who was standing in the doorway to her room. The blonde was still in her hero costume and knowing her, she would probably head out for a quick patrol before finally giving herself time to rest.

**"Come to scold me, mother?"** Natalie questioned as she sat down on her bed to remove her boots. **"Can it wait until after I've rested?"**

She was tired and anything her mother said to her now would most likely go in one ear and out the other.

**"I am not here to scold you."** Elizaveta said. **"I am here to check you for injuries, and no, that cannot way until tomorrow."**

Natalie frowned though didn't protest as she knew it wouldn't do her any good to do so. She just nodded her head, so her mother came in with a medical kit in hand. As her mother set up beside Natalie's bed, the teen leaned back on her bed.

**"Though I am upset with you,"** Elizaveta said after a moment of silence.

Natalie let out a sigh as she put her hands over her face. She knew this was coming as her mother went on in a rant about her recklessness. Natalie drowned her out mostly as she thought back to what happened at Cadmus. She still didn't know why she was signaled out from the boys, but she would find out. Which means she might have to break Batman's order of not doing any hero work for the next few days. She'd just have to be careful in not getting caught.

**"Are you listening to me?"** Elizaveta asked looking annoyed.

**"No,"** Natalie replied bluntly.


	6. The Original Six

Coco: Hey, guys, it's been a while. I apologize. But I do hope you enjoy the chapter. Also forewarning, I am introducing some of the comic into this story. While I might not throw a lot of it in, I will be adding some. Which will be seen a bit in this chapter and the next. I will be also adding in a few characters from the DC universe into Young Justice though they haven't made a formal appearance in any of the seasons thus far. I just think they'll really help in the direction I want to take the story well even into the future chapters and later seasons. Anyway, once again I hope you enjoy.

* * *

**ODESSA**

**JULY 6, 12:04 EEST**

As the second day to the three-day wait was hitting noon, Natalie hummed to the music she had playing through the speakers in the living room. The young heroine was currently taking an inventory of her weapons while also caring for those who needed a little TLC. Like her prized katana, which she had sharpened and polished earlier. She had moved the furniture out of the way to do this as she sat on the floor with legs crossed and weapon collection circled around her.

She was looking over her shuriken when a beep sounded from her laptop, which she had placed behind her on the coffee table. She paused in what she was doing to turn and look at the device as several more beeps sounded with images of people pulling up across the screen. She narrowed her eyes slightly as she saw at the very least ten CEOs images displayed before her with missing person's reports alongside them. She set down her shuriken to pick up her laptop to get a closer look at the information. She read the reports as she also pulled up other documents sent to her by a certain Boy Wonder.

The documents were ones he had taken from Cadmus. Yes, he handed Batman the main files he had downloaded, but like any smart detective, he made sure to keep copies for him. Copies he shared with Natalie. They had more investigating to do concerning Cadmus. Investigating that was to be kept just between the two of them until they had more solid leads to go along with their growing suspicions. As Natalie kept reading, she finally heaved a sigh as she looked up.

'_I should have known he was involved,'_ She thought unhappily.

Natalie then stiffened when he heard the familiar sound of her mother's keys unlocking the door to their apartment. She was quick to compile what she had discovered to send quickly to Robin through a private server before she saved her findings and shutdown her laptop. She had it off to the side out of the way and was back to looking over her shuriken by the time the door opened to reveal her mother. Elizaveta looked over at her daughter with her right eyebrow quirking when seeing the weapons lying around their living room.

"**I see you're being productive,"** Her mother said as she went to the kitchen to put away the groceries, she brought home with her.

Natalie replied with her own raised eyebrow as she turned to face her mother with shuriken still in hand.

"**And what else would you have me do?"** Natalie asked with a tilt of her head. **"I am grounded, remember?"**

"**From hero work,"** Elizaveta retorted. **"That doesn't mean you have to remain inside all day. Go out with your friends."**

"**I don't have any friends outside of my extra curriculars,"** Natalie reminded her mother as she turned back around.

Natalie wasn't a people person. If she wasn't out doing hero work, she was training, or doing her school work, which she does at home. She doesn't even know anyone close to her age besides her fellow protégés. And as they were basically grounded, they couldn't exactly hang out together at the moment. Elizaveta sighed.

"**Perhaps this is the perfect opportunity to go make some friends,"** The blonde suggested. **"It's a beautiful day outside. You should go enjoy it and meet new people."**

"**No, thank you,"** Natalie was quick to declined.

Elizaveta shook her head as she put away the reminder of the groceries. She then pulled a book out of one of the bags to bring over to Natalie. The girl looked up at her mother's approach. Elizaveta held out the book to her. The book looked a bit old and had what looked to be Atlantean text on it.

"**A gift from Arthur."** Elizaveta explained as Natalie took the book**. "I told him a little while back that you finished the other texts, he had given you. When I ran into him at headquarters, he gave this to me for you. He thinks you will find this book more challenging as it covers the different dialects of Atlanteans."**

Natalie was already reading the book before her mother finished and Elizaveta chuckled. Natalie didn't have many hobbies that excluded going along with hero work. But something she did have a passion for was learning new languages and understanding different cultures. Yes, it is something that could definitely come in handy in their line of work. But Natalie doesn't do all the studying and researching for the job. She does it because its something she enjoys. One of the few things, which is why Elizaveta is grateful to her fellow Leaguers who supply Natalie with such materials to learn with.

J'onn had been the first to start giving Natalie materials as the girl had been curious about Martian culture. It wasn't anything she had said out loud, but considering J'onn can literally read minds, he had figured it out rather quickly. And so, he started to teach her about his people and give her whatever she needed to study. Once hearing of what J'onn was doing and how quickly she picked up on things, Arthur offered to help her with studying Atlantean culture if she wished, and of course, she had been quick to agree.

"**I suppose that will keep you busy while you wait on the Detective's decision,"** Elizaveta said.

Natalie only hummed in response as she was too busy reading to really listen to her mother. Elizaveta nearly snorted as she shook her head. She said no more though as she pat Natalie on top of the head before going to make them so lunch. After her mother was distracted by preparing lunch, Natalie took her eyes off the book for a moment to stare at her mother. When seeing she truly wasn't paying attention to Natalie, the brunette pulled out her phone while unsurprised to see a message from Robin.

[We definitely need to look more into this] -Bird Wonder

Yes, the information they were discovering by looking closer into Cadmus was interesting. However, any people they could ask about it have disappeared or are probably going missing as they wait for this grounding to be over with. And there was only one group of people who could pull off these many _kidnappings_ so quickly and so effortlessly.

…The League of Shadows…

* * *

**MOUNTAIN JUSTICE**

**JULY 8, 8:04 EDT**

Natalie looked around curiously as she stood next to her mother in some kind of secret base inside a hollowed-out mountain. There were a few Leaguers moving about and moving things around as well. Natalie has seen the Earth's original Green Lantern—Hal Jordan. The Hawks were both here as well along with Canary, Red Tornado, and a few others.

"What is this place?" Natalie, who was dressed in civvies today, asked her mother who was unlike her and dressed in hero-costume.

Natalie had decided to leave her hair down for the day as she didn't have to worry about it getting in her way as she didn't expect any fighting to be going on today. With it down the dark brown locks fell past her shoulder blades and her bangs framed the shape of her face. She wore a simple black t-shirt, which was underneath a grayish-white sweater. The sweat was left unbuttoned and like the shirt seemed a size too big for the girl, which was unlike the tight dark-washed capris she wore. Then on her feet plain white vans.

"Batman will explain shortly," Wraith assured her daughter. "Now go on. Stand with your friends."

Natalie turned to said friends as Wally and Dick were speaking together quiet adamantly. She learned the two secret identities rather early on. Wally hadn't seen the need to hide who he actually was to his fellow protégés and had almost instantly told Dick and Natalie his real name after first being introduced. Now, Dick had been quiet opposite. Or rather there was never a reason for him to give away his secret identity to her as she had already known it, but that is a story for another day.

"Nat, can you believe it?" Wally asked as she walked over to them as they stood with Aqualad who was also out of costume today like the rest of them.

In fact, his outfit was very much surface style than Atlantean. Though she supposed that was to blend in more, and the high collar of his jacket did hide the gills along his neck.

"Believe what?" Natalie asked.

Wally gestured to all around them with his excited grin only getting bigger as he did so.

"We were brought to a super-secret underground base." Wally told her. "What do you think that means?"

"It could mean many things," Natalie said with a small shrug. "Perhaps this is where they plan to silence us because we know of their secret headquarters in space, and no one would ever know about it because as you pointed out this is a super-secret underground base."

Wally looked at her as if she might be a bit crazy as Dick was sniggering off to the side. As Wally continued to stare at her, Natalie looked to Dick wondering if she said something wrong. Dick just continued to laugh behind his hand, which was no help to her at all. Wally finally sighed as he put his arm around the girl's shoulders.

"Babe, I really worry about you sometimes," He said. "Like, do I even want to know why you think that's an actual possibility? Or, ya know, please, tell me that you're joking."

Natalie blinked at him in return, which had Aqualad looking a bit amused himself by the exchange. Superboy just watched them silently as he too was a bit confused. The Justice League wouldn't really of them, would they? The teens didn't get to converse much longer as Batman cleared his throat. The five teens lined up next to each other with Natalie ending up between Dick and Superboy in the middle. The other mentors and a few other Leaguers came closer as well as Batman prepared to address the protégés.

"This cave was the original secret sanctuary of the Justice League," Batman informed the teens. "We're calling it into service again. Since you five are determined to stay together and fight the good fight, you will do it on League terms."

Natalie's brow quirked. This had her interest. It sounded like they'd be given more responsibility. Even if on League terms this was something.

"Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor." Batman continued. "Black Canary is in charge of training with Wraith assisting when she has the time for it. I will deploy you on missions."

"Real missions?" Dick asked skeptically.

"Yes, but covert," Batman told them.

Natalie and Dick exchanged a glance at that piece of information. Covert was something right up their alley.

"The League will still handle to obvious stuff," Flash spoke up from beside Wally. "There's a reason why we have these big targets on our chest."

He tapped the lightning bolt symbol that was on the front of his hero costume as he said this.

"But Cadmus proves the bad guys are getting smarter," Aquaman said. "Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly."

"The six of you will be that team," Batman said.

"Cool," Dick said smiling.

He then looked to Natalie when the girl lightly nudged his side. He looked up at her while noting her slightly puzzled expression. He was confused for a moment before something hit him.

"Wait, six?" He asked to clear up both his and Natalie's confusion while looking back to his mentor.

Batman looked silently behind the teens, which had the group turning around. Natalie's eyes first landed on Martian Manhunter before falling on the green-skinned girl with him.

"This is the Martian Manhunter's niece." Batman said. "Miss Martian."

"Hi," Miss Martian said shyly as she raised her hand.

Natalie studied the girl for a moment with her eyes darting between the two Martians. She said nothing, however, as Wally nudged Dick.

"Liking this gig more every minute," He not so quietly whispered before he more loudly greeted Miss Martian. "Welcome aboard! I'm Kid Flash. That's Robin, Aqualad, and Trance. It's cool if you forget their names."

While Aqualad and Dick waved politely at Miss Martian, Natalie continued to study the girl with her arms crossing over her chest. Miss Martian noticed the action and looked a little nervous under the other girl's stare. However, Natalie finally looked away when Dick nudged her. She gave him a look of confusion and he shook his head at her in return. She frowned though nodded her head as she dropped the staring. It was an odd exchange that Miss Martian didn't quite understand. If they were telepaths like herself and her uncle, it'd make more sense, but it was her understanding that the two before her were mere humans. Though before she could ask, Dick turned towards her once more.

"Don't mind, Trance," Dick said as he pointed this thumb at the older teen. "She's a good person, I promise. She just…"

Dick trailed off as if trying to find the right phrase to use without insulting the brunette.

"Has terrible people skills," Wally finished with a shrug. "Good luck getting her to talk. Took me forever to get any words out of her besides when she introduced herself."

He shot Natalie a look as he said this, and while many would be insulted, Natalie shrugged. She couldn't really argue with him there.

"It's alright," Miss Martian said with a kind smile. "I'm just honored to be included."

Wally and Dick smiled at her words before going over to get closer to their new teammate. Aqualad remained by Natalie's side as the girl didn't go to introduce herself. She remained back even when Superboy walked over to talk to Miss Martian when prompted by Dick to join them.

"Do you not wish to greet our new teammate?" Aqualad asked curiously.

Natalie silently looked up at the Atlantean for a moment before the girl let out a sigh.

"I suppose I am being rude, aren't I?" Natalie hummed.

"I wouldn't say that," Aqualad said as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Meeting new people…it makes you uncomfortable, yes?"

Natalie simply nodded her head. She didn't like meeting new people. When in costume, she was in work mode. Anyone she meets as Trance is simply someone needing saving or a co-worker to help aid in the mission at hand. It's easy to just act professional and not worry about any real niceties or having to worry about what's the right thing to say.

Dick and Wally basically built their relationship with her. She didn't have to do much and even with their friendship, she still finds social interactions to be troublesome and confusing. Which is funny considering she enjoys learning languages as a pastime. She might understand a language through and through, but it doesn't help her with using it in actual conversation. Unless it's for work, of course.

"We can greet her together if that makes you more comfortable," Aqualad kindly offered.

Natalie thought if over for a second before she gave a nod. She supposed that would be alright. Aqualad nodded in return before leading Natalie over to their fellow teens. The group turned towards them at their arrival. Miss Martian smiled at the pair. Especially Natalie as she hoped to make friends with the only other girl on the team.

"It is nice to meet you, Miss Martian," Aqualad said with his own smile.

"…Yes, welcome to the team." Natalie added.

Though she didn't smile herself, Miss Martian's own smile grew. Wally and Dick even exchanged a glance as they grinned.

"Look at her making progress." Wally cooed as he put an arm around Natalie. "Our little girl is growing up."

He then yelped when said girl punched him hard on the arm. Dick laughed at his misfortune with Superboy even silently grinning in amusement alongside him. Aqualad watched his fellow teens with a smile before placing a hand on Robin's shoulder.

"Today's the day," Aqualad said.

The others smiled at his words before their mentors preparing to leave caught their attention.

"It's time to head home, darling," Wraith said to Natalie. "Now that your grounding is over, you're free to return to patrolling. If you wish."

Natalie didn't have to be told twice as she was quick to return to her mother's side.

"Someone's eager to get back to work," Wally commented.

"And that's exactly what we'll be doing," Flash said as he nudged Wally. "I heard from your mom that you loafed around too much these last few days. I don't think she wants you back home anytime soon."

Wally scoffed at that one, but didn't argue as he was a bit eager to get back to work too. Who knew three days could be so long? As the others prepared to leave as well, Batman turned towards Superboy.

"Superboy, most of us will be leaving," Batman informed him. "You are not to go anywhere. Just sit tight until Red Tornado returns."

Superboy frowned at the order but said nothing in return as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"What's the snitch, Batman?" Dick asked his mentor as Martian Manhunter was telling Superboy they would be leaving soon as well.

"We're returning to Gotham." Batman replied.

Dick nodded his head before turning to Natalie as she was getting ready to leave back to Odessa.

"Hey, Nat, wait up!" He called hurrying pass Batman over to the brunette.

Natalie paused to look back at the boy wonder who skidded to a stop right in front of her.

"Since the ban is lifted how about you join me in Gotham tomorrow?" Dick asked. "That project we've been working on; I'd like to get it done as soon as possible, ya know?"

He said this with an easygoing grin though there was a deeper meaning to his words. Natalie, who picked up on this, gave a nod.

"That would be fine," She said. "Mother says I need to hang out with my friends more anyway."

She shot her mother a look as she said this, and Wraith just smiled silently in return.

"Cool then, it's a date," Dick said with a teasing wink.

Natalie's lips twitched up at his words before ruffling his hair in a playful manner. Though the exchange was light and carefree, both teens knew that tomorrow was going to be an entirely different story.

* * *

**INFINITY ISLAND**

**JULY 8, 22:14 EDT**

"Our employers are…ending…their relationships with certain corporations they have previously done business with." Sensei said as he stood before the Shadows gathered. "Cutting ties, so to speak, because of the fiasco with Cadmus. They are being cautious. They do not want anything traced back to them. This is the reason we are called into action."

He paused momentarily to hold up a picture for the group to see. The picture showed the image of a young woman. An innocent looking woman. Probably a woman has lived normally all her life, but that was about to change for her.

"We are the solution to the problem," Sensei said. "We are the League of Shadows. Do not fail me."

Those gathered stood and bowed to Sensei before they left to do as they were ordered. After they were gone, Sensei turned to the darkest corner of the room where the Demon sat—Ra's al Ghul. Ra's sat quietly in his chair as he rested his chin on the knuckles of his hand.

"They will not fail, Master," Sensei said.

"No, that is certain," Ra's agreed. "Though if a certain child interferes, I believe the chances for success will drop drastically. After all, she was taught very well."

He said this with a chuckle before glancing behind him at the figure who had remained at his side during the meeting.

"Tell me, my child, how do you feel about paying a visit to your younger sister?" Ra's questioned.


	7. To Dance with Shadows

Coco: Hey, guys, it's me back with another chapter for Young Justice...obviously XD And for those of you, who don't know, this chapter comes from the comics. It's not something I just made up on my own. I mean, yeah, I've made my own personal spin on it, especially near the end, but this is from the comics XD And the next chapter will mostly be from the comics too with a more dramatic end than what was given in the original work. At least, I think it's going to be a bit more dramatic. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. :D

* * *

**CENTRAL CITY**

**JULY 9, 13:12 CDT**

"I still disagree with your decision to involve Aqualad and Kid Flash," Natalie said very bluntly as she and Dick—both of them in civvies— stepped out of one of the many zeta tubes in Central City.

"Noted," Dick said while looking amused by Natalie's unhappy expression.

The expression only deepened when seeing that the boy wonder wasn't really listening to her. She shook her head. She had no idea that when she showed up at the Wayne Manor today that she was going to be dragged down to the Batcave only to zeta to Central City to join Wally and Aqualad at a café of Wally's choosing. Seeing her look, Dick nudged her.

"It'll be fine," Dick said. "Think of it as team training. The four of us need to get a handle on working together, right? Well, we can do it now."

"We shouldn't test the waters of how well we will work together on the League of Shadows," Natalie retorted. "You and I would be sufficient enough. We are adding two variables that are unneeded and can jeopardize the mission."

Dick paused in their walk with Natalie stopping back to look back at him as she wondered what the hold up way.

"Ya know, I think this is the most you've talked in a row," Dick commented.

Natalie just silently narrowed her eyes at him in a clear 'don't you even try to change the subject' look. Dick shrugged. It had been worth a try.

"Don't worry," He tried to assure her again. "We did pretty good on the Cadmus job and we hadn't even had any information before hand or even a strategy."

"It was a disaster," Natalie disagreed. "Text book speaking, we should have failed. We lucked out."

Dick sighed wishing Natalie would just try to be more positive. Yeah, he understood why she was on edge. This was personal considering those involved, but he figured strength in numbers was the key as they were doing this without their mentors. The two dropped the subject as they reached the café Wally had told them to meet him at. They saw the redhead was sitting at one of the tables outside the establishment and Aqualad was with him. The two seemed to have already ordered something for themselves as well.

"There you are, you slowpokes," Wally called out when he saw them.

Dick waved back in reply as he and Natalie walked over to join the two. Wally pat the seat next to him for Natalie to take and she nodded her thanks to him as she sat down.

"Sorry, Trance was dragging her feet." Dick said. "Took me a minute to even get her through the zeta tube."

Natalie resisted the urge to stick her tongue out childishly at Dick as the dark-haired boy remained standing.

"It is alright," Aqualad assured him. "Now, why is it that you wished to meet?"

Dick wordlessly pulled out a picture of who he and Natalie were quite certain was the League of Shadow's next target.

"So, why am I looking at a picture of…?" Wally trailed off trying to get Dick to explain.

"Her name is Gonzalez. Selena Gonzalez." Robin said.

"And we care why?" Wally prompted. "Other than the fact that she's a hottie?"

"Because in less than 24 hours we suspect Ms. Gonzalez to be dead." Natalie said pointblank though made sure to keep her tone low so not to be overheard.

Aqualad and Wally looked at her with wide eyes as she sat calmly in her seat with her fingers laced together and elbows resting on the arms of her chair. She was unbothered by their looks, which made Dick sigh quietly.

"Yeah, what she said." Dick said.

"Care to elaborate?" Wally inquired.

"We suspect her to be a target for a hit while she's here in Central City." Dick said. "We're not entirely sure on the reason, but we have found—or think we've found something related to her."

That didn't clear up too much for Wally and Aqualad, but what Dick gave them was more to go on than what Natalie had so bluntly stated.

"Related how?" Aqualad asked.

"Looking through some of Batman's files I found that there have been a few targets. Seemingly unrelated, but with Trance's help I cross-referenced a ton of data and we think we found a pattern."

Trance nodded in agreement as Wally's mouth dropped open in shock as he realized exactly what they had done.

"Looked through?" Wally scoffed rather loudly. "You mean you hacked into Batman's files!"

When given exasperated looks from both Dick and Natalie, Wally realized what he had done as he looked around at all the people within earshot. Anyone could have heard him just then. He bit his lip looking apologetic.

"Anyway," Dick returned to what he had previously been saying. "We think this CEO might be next. All of the other 'hits' have been made to look like accidents—random muggings gone wrong, kidnappings ending on a bad note—things like that. I figured we could look into it, which is why I had Trance help me shift through the data faster before too many more people were hurt."

And a few more have been hurt while the two have been putting together their information and comparing notes.

"And what brought your attention to this in the first place?" Aqualad asked.

"After the incident at Cadmus, Trance and I both decided it was best to look into them more closely." Dick explained. "We both had a feeling things weren't over, and while looking into the information I had pulled from Cadmus the night we rescued Superboy along with other things such as corporate holdings, who they do with business and such, we noticed people they have had dealings with have recently met untimely accidents."

"They're obviously being silenced." Natalie said. "At least that's what we believe. Cadmus is trying to tie up loose ends most likely."

It was the most logical deduction anyway, and Natalie was certain nothing could change her mind on the matter.

"You want us to look into this on a hunch that someone might have put a hit on the CEO of this company?" Wally asked while once again forgetting to control the loudness of his voice due to his excitement. "Cool!"

He was again given a look and he gasped realizing he had done it all over again. Dick sighed shaking his head. He was beginning to agree with Natalie that maybe Wally shouldn't be involved.

"What about Superboy and Miss Martian?" Aqualad inquired about their teammates who weren't brought in on the briefing.

"We don't want to get them in trouble before the Team even gets going, do we?" Dick replied back with his own question. "Besides, if you think about it, we haven't even had a real outing as a team yet."

That was something Natalie was very much well aware of. Hence her misgivings about allowing Aqualad and Wally in on such a mission. She and Dick have worked a few gigs together, and they both had similar training. Not to mention, Dick has actually dealt with the League of Shadows just as she has. Their two friends, who are currently present, haven't.

"C'mon, Aqualad, let's do this." Wally encouraged the Atlantean. "This could be fun."

Natalie sighed. This wasn't meant to be fun. The League of Shadows should be taken seriously. Of course, they haven't gotten around to telling Wally and Aqualad of their possible involvement yet. And by possible, Natalie was 100% certain the Shadows were involved.

"Okay, think of it as a training session, then." Dick tried to tell Aqualad. "We haven't even had one of those as a team yet."

All the more reason to wait until they do have one of those before involving others in this kind of affair. At least in Natalie's opinion, but Dick has already shown that he isn't going to listen to her, so she doubted saying anything now would help.

"Then why are Miss Martian and Superboy not here?" Aqualad insisted. "They are part of the Team, are they not?"

"Yes, they are," Natalie said. "However, they don't even have a week's worth of hero work underneath their belts. It would be bad strategy on our parts to involve them on such a mission. I am against even inviting the two of you to be quite honest considering who our opponents will most likely be."

This caught Wally's attention as he looked at Natalie curiously. Now, he was really interested in this mission. Meaning Natalie's words had the opposite affect of what she was hoping. Something she realized when seeing the excited gleam in Wally's eyes. She mentally groaned.

"And who do you think is behind all this?" He asked with a grin.

"The one pulling the strings?" Natalie inquired. "We do not know. However, the one executing these accidents is most likely the League of Shadows."

Dick nodded in agreement as Wally's grin seemed to grow even wider. Natalie shook her head once more. She didn't understand his excitement at all.

"Whoa, really?!" Wally asked. "If so, then "_executed_" really is an appropriate choice of words."

Aqualad seemed a bit confused as he looked at his teammates. Wally seemed positively thrilled about hearing this League of Shadows could be their culprit to these untimely accidents of company CEOs. However, Dick was more sober about it and Natalie seemed positively grim as she stared at Wally unhappily. He realized they had to be some kind of big deal, but he had no idea who they were.

"Wait…who is the League of Shadows?" He asked.

All three of his teammates looked a tad surprised he didn't know who they were talking about. However, Natalie gave a sigh once she realized why he wouldn't know.

"I suppose the Shadows aren't as well known in Atlantis." She said with a slight hum. "Even with all their connections and resources, I don't even think they could pull off assassinations that deep underwater. At least not as well as they do on the surface."

Dick nodded realizing the same as Wally, who had opened his mouth to ask Aqualad how he didn't know the Shadows, closed his mouth.

"So, they are assassins?" Aqualad summarized.

"Partly," Dick said. "The League of Shadows is a deadly organization with their dirty hands stuck in a whole bunch of stuff around the world."

"Allegedly." Wally added. "Nothing ever seems to get proven against those guys."

Aqualad understood. This League of Shadows is good at what they do and what they do is very, very criminal.

"So, to reiterate, you want the four of us to look into what may or may not be a sanctioned assassination attempt on this CEO, carried out by a covert organization called the League of Shadows, without either of our other two teammates…and without authorization from Batman or the rest of the Justice League?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Dick said with a casual shrug.

"What are we waiting for?!" Wally asked.

Natalie sighed knowing so many things could go wrong on this mission.

* * *

**CENTRAL CITY**

**JULY 9, 19:54 CDT**

Trance, who once again adorn her costume, frowned as she sat perched on top of a building not too far from the Shadows' target's workplace. Robin was next to her crouched form as he was watching the building closely with his binoculars. Aqualad watched from a distance silently as he waited for their next move. However, he was the only one being silent behind them as a certain redhead was currently munching very loudly on his snacks as he sat up on the small level above them. Natalie turned to frown at Kid Flash as he was eating away happily as if they weren't trying to have a stakeout at the moment.

"Why is she still at work?" He inquired over the mouthful of food he was currently trying to eat. "Everyone else went home hours ago."

That was true. Everyone else had called it a day some time ago. Selena Gonzalez was the only one left in the building. Trance almost wanted to scoff at the lack of security this place had. Even if security guards—normal ones anyway—could do very little against the Shadows, at least it'd be come kind of protection.

"Could you not chew so loud?" Robin retorted to Kid Flash's question instead of really answering it.

"At this point, I wish he could feed with a filter much like a humpback whale would. It would be less nauseating to watch," Aqualad quipped.

Trance couldn't disagree there as having to watch the speedster eat was a bit gross and she doesn't even flinch at the sight of blood or anything related to such.

"Haha, very funny," Kid Flash snorted.

"Could you just keep it down?" Robin asked.

He sounded quite exasperated at this point. He's never had to deal with such annoyances during any of his other stakeouts. Of course, all those had been with Batman and the Dark Knight has shown he can stand for hours without making a peep or moving.

"Which one? My voice or my chewing?" Kid Flash asked.

"Both." Robin practically growled.

Kid Flash either didn't notice or care he was getting on Robin's nervous as he let out a loud sigh while dropping his bag of chips.

"I can't help it!" Kid Flash whined. "I'm bored and I need to eat! We've been sitting here for hours. Do you know how hard that is for me to do?!"

Kid continued his rant, but Trance tuned him out as she suddenly felt alert when she could have sworn, she heard footfalls behind them. She turned her head seeing no one, but she was almost positive she had heard someone's feet touch down on the roof as if someone had jumped down from a higher vantage point onto the roof they were on. There were several taller buildings around them. Perfect for people to watch them as they were trying to watch Selena.

However, her attention was brought off of behind them when in her peripherals she had caught movement. Her head snapped back around seeing a man dressed in a dark purplish-black body suit climbing up the side of the building much like a spider would. She wasn't the only one who noticed as Robin's eyes were already trained on the man.

"There below the window," Aqualad said seeing him too. "Movement."

Kid Flash finally spotted the assassin who was moving in closer to target. But he wasn't the only one getting closer. Trance's eyes flickered behind them once more as she tried not to move her head too much. There was definitely someone there. Possibly two. Before she could find a way to warn her friends, Kid Flash was already gone as Aqualad was trying to come up with a plan. When seeing the speedster already gone, the Atlantean turned to Robin.

"Robin, we—!" Aqualad was cut off by Robin's cackles thus making him sigh. "This isn't team building."

He looked to Trance who silently nodded in agreement before shoving Aqualad to the side quite roughly. He gasped in shock, but his eyes really widened when seeing the large hook swinging where he had been standing. His took in the owner of said hook as he was smirking at the two teens.

"I wouldn't worry about them," The assassin said. "Because in a few minutes, you won't have a team."

He took another swing at the two protégés who dodged his attack. It wasn't a smart move on his part as his hook, which he slammed into the roof of the building was now stuck.

"Who are you?" Aqualad asked the man.

"Hook," Trance replied for the white-haired assassin. "Black Spider is his accomplice it seems for this mission."

As soon the words left her mouth, she had to draw her sword to deflect an attack she had saw coming from her right. As her sword cut the offending object in half, she saw it was an arrow. This had her brow quirking silently at the projectile.

"And an unknown," Trance added without missing a beat. "No, most likely two—possibly three—unknowns. The League of Shadows do like to cover all their bases."

Hook didn't seem too worried that Trance was able to deduce the amount of Shadows they currently had running this mission. It was only meant to be four, but their Master had thrown in one extra player just for the little mistress.

"So, you can figure that out, huh?" Hook asked. "So what? That information isn't going to help you because there's nothing you can do with it!"

He managed to get himself free and immediately went for Aqualad as he did so. Trance was going to run interference, but was stopped as a small volley of arrows was sent her way. The arrows forced her back away from Aqualad as she had to jump backwards to avoid being hit. She mentally cursed. They're being separated purposely, so they can't work as a team.

As Aqualad faced off against Hook, Trance's eyes shifted around looking for her attacker. When another arrow was let loose, Trance's eyes zeroed in on where the arrow came from. Without hesitation she dodged the attack, drew a few of her shuriken, and threw them towards her attacker's location.

She saw someone flee the spot, but couldn't make them out enough for a distinct profile. They disappeared into a blind spot, and as Trance knew they'd have to find another point to attack from, she returned her attention to her teammate who was currently losing against Hook. She threw out a flash bomb, which exploded in Hook's face. He cried out trying to cover his eyes, but the damage had already been done. Thinking quickly, Trance sheathed her sword, grabbed Aqualad, and jumped off the side of the building just as the mysterious archer shot another arrow her way.

It barely missed her as she and Aqualad went falling down as gravity did its job. To keep them from falling to their deaths, Trance deployed her grappling hook to snag onto the building in front of them. Once it hooked, they swung towards the building Selena Gonzalez worked in. They went crashing through one of the windows and rolled out across the floor with Trance gaining her bearings much quicker than Aqualad.

The room they had crashed into was none other than the one Selena was working in. She gasped at their entrance and nearly screamed when Black Spider made his own through the window beside her. He went to make a grab for Selena, but was forced to flip out of the way when Trance threw more of her shuriken. At this rate, she knew she was going to run out.

"Ah, if it isn't you!" Black Spider said when seeing her.

He didn't get a chance to say much else as Kid Flash zoomed into the room. The redhead looked surprised as he saw Aqualad and Trance.

"When did you two get here?" He asked.

"Just grab Ms. Gonzalez and get out of here!" Aqualad ordered. "We will handle this."

Kid Flash nodded before he zipped pass Black Spider to grab onto Selena. Before she even knew what was happening, Kid had her out of the room and out of harms way.

"Hey, that's not cool, Fast Dude," Black Spider complained as if Kid had just taken something minor of his instead of the woman he was ordered to assassinate.

He then had to flip out of the way when Aqualad had used his water bearers to make whip-like weapons, which he had slung at the assassin. Black Spider nimbly moved around the room avoiding Aqualad with well-trained ease.

"You'll have to do better than that," Black Spider taunted. "You are dealing with me, after all? Isn't that right, Trancey?"

Trance frowned at the nickname before jumping out of the way of the webs he sent her way. She then dodged backwards when Black Spider tried to take her out with a swift kick to the face. She retaliated by going with the momentum of her dodge and flipping backwards. Her feet came up and landed a swift blow to the underside of Black Spider's chin. He was sent for his own loop and then hit from the side by Aqualad. He quickly gained his bearings as he faced the two teens.

"Better," He said. "But not enough~"

Before the words even fully left his mouth, Hook came crashing through the remainder of the window Trance and Aqualad had come through earlier. Without any hesitation and before his feet even fully touched the ground, he shot his hook forward and it caught Aqualad just right on the jaw. The Atlantean went flying backwards and crashed into the wall behind him. He fell forward landing on the ground with a hard thump. Trance wasn't surprised at all when he was left unmoving. He took a pretty hard hit. Not to mention the ones he had taken earlier.

"Good job!" Black Spider gave a thumbs up to his teammate. "Now, I'm going to handle those other two junior do-gooders. You got her, right?"

He gestured to Trance who stood at the ready as she knew rushing in would be a bad idea considering she was currently outnumbered.

"Oh yeah," Hook said as he raised his large metal hook. "I'll handle the little mistress, no problem."

Black Spider nodded then disappeared threw the window to go and intercept Robin and Kid Flash.

"Sorry, girlie, but I won't be going easy on ya, ya hear?" Hook warned as he took a step forward.

Trance merely tilted her head at Hook as she kept her hand on the hilt of her sword.

"Oh, am I supposed to be frightened?" Trance questioned. "If so, you might want to work on your intimidation tactics."

Hook let out a roar of anger as he took a swing at Trance who flipped over him. She placed a few low charge bombs on his back as she was behind him and when they went off, he shouted in surprise. He went tumbling to the side, which gave Trance time grab Aqualad and book it out of the room. She didn't have time to play with Hook as keeping Selena alive was the main objective.

That means she needs to regroup with Robin and Kid Flash to come up with an actual strategy than the stupidity they've been pulling so far. So far, she knew for certain there were at least three members of the League of Shadows here. Hook, Black Spider, and the unknown archer. She didn't recall anyone in the League of Shadows being an archer. At least not one of the members who pull off more important missions like this. Of course, her father could have recruited more people since she and her mother left. Not that that mattered right now.

Trance let out a huff as she turned the corner with the unconscious Aqualad laying heavy against her shoulder. He was heavier than she thought he'd be. Perhaps he was more muscular than she gave him credit for during her first assessment of him. She needed to put him somewhere safe and then come back for him once the target was safe and the threat neutralized. With that thought in mind, Trance found the nearest supply closet. She placed Aqualad inside—propped against the wall—where he'd hopefully be safe. She moved a few boxes around him, so if anyone just peeked in, they'd most likely over look him.

"I will come back for you," Trance promised her unconscious teammate.

She then left Aqualad behind in the closet to hurry and try to get to the other boys. However, after reaching the next level, she was once again stopped. But it wasn't by Hook or Black Spider but a hooded figure with a bow and quiver of arrows on their back. Her mysterious archer friend.

"Well, well, there you are," A feminine voice said that had Trance, who was reaching for her sword, freeze.

She knew that voice. She knew it all too well, and even if it has been near a decade since she's heard it, she knew exactly who it belonged to.

"Nyssa." Trance said.

The archer—Nyssa—chuckled before lowering her hood to reveal a young woman that resembled Trance. However, instead of dark brown hair, her hair was jet black. Her skin was also a bit paler, but they shared many of the same facial features. They even had the same green eyes. Green eyes passed down to them by none other than the Master of the League of Shadows Ra's al Ghul.

"Hello, little sister," Nyssa greeted the youngest of the al Ghul family. "Miss me?"

* * *

Coco: Okay, for those of you who don't know, Nyssa Raatko is legit one of Ra's al Ghul's daughters. She is canon and she sometimes is known as Nyssa al Ghul. I personally don't know a lot about her as she's not as popular as her half sister Talia, but I'm going to base her kind of off of the Nyssa we get in DC's Arrowverse hence why she uses a bow and arrows. Her personality is also just something I'm kind of giving her since like I said I don't know a lot about her. So, I'm not sure what her exact personality type is, but I hope you enjoy her being added in to the Young Justice Universe alongside my OC Natalie. Anyway, hope you liked the chapter, and I look forward to when I have a new one to share with you. See ya!


	8. IMPORTANT READ! NEW STORY NOTICE!

Coco: Hey, guys! I know this isn't a chapter update, but I'm here to tell you that I have a new story up and ready for viewing! And I know I already have too many to handle, but...well, we know how I am by now, so is anyone surprised? Nope? Yeah, didn't think so...XD

Anyway, today I bring you something different than my usual stuff! Not a full on story, but a series of one shots/scenarios! Boyfriend scenarios to be exact! I usually don't do anything like this, but I've been on wattpad recently (I created an account on there-StephDT24-to call out someone who was using my work as their own a few months ago) and got hooked on the boyfriend scenario stories. I think they're interesting to read and through them I got a bit of inspiration!

As many of you who have read my works, you know, I tend to clutter my stories with too many ocs. Which is mostly due to my overactive imagination not knowing when to stop making said ocs for whatever story I'm working on. I just get so many ideas and I want to use them all and then before you know it, I've cluttered my story. I've definitely gotten better, but still have some trouble keeping the OC count low...so, what is my solution?! Right a separate story of one shots featuring those ocs I make, so I can still use them, but keep separated them from the main story, so my dear readers don't get confused by all the new characters! Hence, why I decided to try out this new idea with a boyfriend scenario story! I also picked Hetalia as its story line is a bit all over the place anyway and I thought it'd be something fun to try out this new idea of mine.

So, this new story I mentioned will consist of ocs I've created (non-country ocs) and the characters of Hetalia. So far twenty different ocs have been made to be paired with some of my favorite countries for this fun journey (or I hope to be fun journey). And don't worry, to help you keep track of them all, the first chapter is going to be an introduction/guide to the ocs I've created!

Now, I'm hoping this series will be one of many (like I do plan to do a few more even if not exactly the same thing. Like some normal just one shot series), and the idea is that if I ever have another new story I wish to write, I'll use one shot series like this to help me pick the oc I want by bringing you all into it and asking your opinions. For example, I have an idea for a Kimetsu no Yaiba story, but not sure which kind of character I want to use. I've made many ocs to choose from, but not sure who to use, so to help me decide, I'll do a series like this and open a poll for all of you to give a chance to voice your opinions! I want to get you guys involved as much as possible for this fun project! So be looking forward to my one shots series(s). The ones I have in mind right now for certain are:

Hetalia Boyfriend Scenarios (the new story I'm posting today)

Kimetsu no Yaiba One Shots

My Hero Academia One Shots (for the mass of OCs I've created but can't put in the stories because they already cluttered enough. Might seem some of the OCs from my MHA storie-Ayonic and Diabla-but mostly just unused OCs)

Bleach One Shots

Fire Force One Shots

And that should be about it. Thanks for your time guys and I hope to see you again soon with some actual chapter updates!


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